Frozen Gold
by Vince23
Summary: When the Ice Queen likes the Golden Boy and an american transfer student come into the school, things change for the group. New friends, new challenges, different solutions. Rated M for language and eventual adult themes and scenes. Harry/Daphne
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer : I do not own Harry Potter or anything that you might recognise.**

**I got a lot of ideas from reading munkeymaniac fanfictions, good stuff he write, you should read if you didn't already.**

**Please note that english isn't my main language and that this is my first try at writing a story in english. While I am fluent, there might be some terms not used correctly, grammatical errors and stuff like that. You may point them out kindly and I'll kindly remove/change/correct them. Be a jerk about it and it'll kindly stay just to annoy you. The same rule apply if you find continuity errors and things like that. For those same reasons, if someone want to beta my text, I'll be grateful.**

**Happy Reading!**

* * *

><p>"Come on! Get moving or you'll miss the train!" Shot a woman, a pretty stunning one in fact, to her almost 16 years old son who was pushing a bit lazily his cart full of heavy-looking luggage. The young man had dark brown hair that were too long to his mother's tastes. He had light blue eyes, almost grey, but nothing short of the ordinary other than maybe being well above average in looks if he listened to gossips.<p>

The matriarch that kept pushing her son forward had a slim body, was pretty tall with dark brown hair tied in a low pony-tail. She also wore small glasses with a black thick frame that gave her the look of a teacher... which she was. She was a muggle, married to a muggleborn. His father had told him they were childhood friends from the same neighborhood and she was one of the rare that knew he was a wizard.

"Mom, he still have a few minutes remaining to board and its a train station, not an airport, I seriously doubt its gonna be as long as Washington airport to check in." Answered a gorgeous tall blond girl in her late teen.

"I never took a train before, I hope there are comfy enough places to sleep... I feel a bit dizzy from the jet lag..."

"Well it doesn't matter. If you're sleepy, move faster so you can board earlier."

"As if you'd let me board before the last warning... Well here we are. Platform 9, and there is platform 10... Any of you was told where is the 9 ¾ one?"

"They said there was a magical barrier between..." Said the father of the small family who was pushing lightly on the brick columns, trying one before moving to an other.

"Maybe we should ask them, they have are clothed a bit strangely, they're probably wizards." Said the eldest of the two children, pointing to a small group of people coming their way, mostly red heads, dressed very badly. Not poorly, simply, it was obvious they had no sense of style.

It was his father who went to ask for help, going straight for the adult with a careful approach that confirmed him of the fact that they were wizards before asking the question. As for the new student, he went to see the children that were probably going to go at the same school than him.

"Hey! Sorry to disturb, we weren't told exactly how to get to the platform." He said while showing his ticket. The other two boys, twins, seemed a bit confused at first but shook his hand while making the introductions.

"Fred and George Weasley and this is Ginny Weasley. Before you ask, no, that "Georgeous" guy beside me is not related to me." Said one of the twin, probably Fred if he had to guess. In fact it didn't sound like sarcasm at all, but it had to be. He did see both of them give a longer look at his sister than necessary.

"I'm Jeffrey Jenkins, call me Jeff. And before you ask, yes, I am related to the Greek Goddes standing at my mother's side."

"Blimey!" Said Fred with false surprise.

"He read our minds!" Continued George, mimicking his double.

"Forget them..." Said the ginger headed sister. "I find it strange that you never took the train to the school..."

She was pretty, Jeff had to admit. He did have a thing for redheads but it wasn't the time to flirt with her twin brothers just beside her. So he simply smiled sweetly before answering.

"Well I'm in fact from America. We moved to England this summer so I'm going to Hogwarts for my fifth year and the rest. I heard it is a pretty big school."

Ginny or the twins hadn't time to comment before the other adults started urging them to get moving. With a shrug, Jeff followed the group until they passed the arch, finally getting in front of the red engine. The air stank a bit from the smoke of the train and the humidity, but it was bearable. Shoving his trunk inside one of the cart, he turned to his parents and sister. A quick hug later and a promise to write to them, a whistle blow had him board the train and rolling his trunk trying to find a cabin with enough place to sit, well more lie down and catch back a bit of sleep.

He pushed the trunk under the bench, putting the lighter and smaller one in the net over him, took out his want and cast a charm to stop the sound from reaching him, effectively allowing him to sleep. Fact is, he got off the plane only a day before and passed the following bunch of hours trying to find his way in London with his parents and sister, Diagon Alley is pretty well hidden.

Seeing a lot of people walking in the corridor, some even hexing one an other but not hearing a thing made the american smile.

"God I love being a wizard!" He said to himself before falling asleep.

* * *

><p>"Well, this one is the only not full..." Harry told himself.<p>

Opening the door, he was welcomed by a blond girl with a strange look reading a magazine that he didn't know the name or was able to see it from there, not that he cared. In front of her was a guy sleeping and effectively taking all the place on the bench.

"Er... Can I sit here?" He asked in a low tone.

The girl nodded and watched him shove his trunk under the bench before sitting.

"Hi. I'm..." Started the raven haired boy.

"Harry Potter. Everybody knows that." She cut him off.

"Ehm... Right... And you are?"

"Luna Lovegood. I'm from Ravenclaw, in fourth year."

"Nice to meet you." He turned his gaze to the seeping boy, now whispering. "Do you know him?"

"No. He must be very tired because he didn't wake up even when I dropped this on the floor." Luna told him while getting out some sort of object composed of multiples bells and metallic objects that were already very noisy just by holding it. What it was and what use it had, Harry had no idea but he decided against asking, something told him he would end up even mode confused.

Ron and Hermione were making their round in the train to make sure everybody was behaving themselves, leaving Harry alone to be scanned by the the strange girl that was wearing butterbeer corks as a necklace. She kept looking at him in silence while Harry glanced a few times at her, not knowing if he should say something or not and still not sure if she was looking at him only because of the Prophet mentioning he was an attention craving liar. In the end, she was the one to say something after a few minutes of examination.

"You are not very talkative."

Harry was a bit taken by surprise at the blunt statement out of the blue and tried to look normal as he spoke. "Ehm... Yeah, not really recently..."

"Do you think I will say you're lying?"

"W-what?" Now Harry was really nervous. He had of course read all about the stupidity the ministry was saying on him but he didn't know how to take that statement.

"The Prophet say a lot of things, I thought you might think I wouldn't believe anything you say." She answered simply, as if it was polite conversation. "Well, just so you know, me and my father believe you."

"Oh. Er... Thanks." Harry was a bit taken aback but felt good nonetheless that he had supporters outside of his close friends and the Order.

The duo was interrupted any thought they might have had by the door sliding to reveal a chubby boy who was followed by a red headed girl. Nevile seemed a bit surprised by the sleeping boy in the cabin and the strange duo while Ginny seemed to brighten when she saw Luna.

"Hey! Can we join you?" Asked Nevile with a shy smile.

"Sure!... Well if there's enough room..." Harry answered while looking at the stranger taking all the place on one of the bench.

"Oh! I met him!" Said Ginny a bit loud while pointing to the sleeping brown haired boy. "He was at the station and didn't knew how to get too the platform. He's a transfer student from America... Ehm... Jeffrey I think. He seemed nice."

Everybody in the cabin looked at him sleeping peacefully before shrugging in concert.

"Well, I think I'll look a bit more, I don't feel like disturbing him and there's definitively not enough place on the bench for me plus all of you."

Before Harry or anyone could protest, the door opened again to a sight that Harry was very apprehensive to have. Draco and his goons were in the door, a mischievous smile on their face as they eyed the compartment. Harry noted he was wearing the small badge with the little "P" Hermione and Ron received. This information made Harry a bit nervous about the coming year if the ponce was to have more authority he already had.

"Hello, Potter... I tough I would advise you to be more prudent this year as I decided I would keep a closer eye on you and your little friends." The blonde boy was eying each of them one after the other while talking. "As you can see I... Hey who is that?"

Everybody knew he was talking about Jeffrey. Draco seemed to be fuming that somebody dared to sleep through his speech. Crabe seemed to find it disturbing too and threw a lollipop stick straight on the sleeper's head, which he seemed strangely surprised to be able to do, if not a little proud of his small, very small feat.

Slowly, people could see the boy rise up, grumbling about planes, jet lag and muffins. This gave Harry and the others time to have a look at him a bit more. If he did seem sleepy, it certainly didn't make him look bad. In fact, Harry could see Ginny blush a little already. Scrubbing his eyes, Jeff looked around and saw Malfoy talking to him, looking really pissed-off.

"How are you so idiot to ignore a superior when he talks? I'll have you know that to you should be begging to lick my shoes and demand for more. Don't forget I am now a Prefect and can have you punished in no time and any effort at all! Well? Say something!"

After Malfoy's tirade, Jeffrey looked pretty confused as if the other boy had spoken Chinese. After a few seconds, a light seemed to pop in his head and he looked as if he had a revelation. To the others, he kinda looked a bit like Crabe and Goyle when they finally understood a difficult word.

"Oh!" He shouted before taking out his wand and pointing it to his ear. A popping sound echoed through the cabin before he explained himself to Malfoy. "Sorry, I had a silence charm on me so I could sleep without disturbance... Seems I was wrong. So... What did you say? You looked pretty passionate wiggling that finger at me. You're in theater?"

This seemed to make Malfoy even more furious as he started to shake uncontrollably.

"I said watch out, or I'll have you in detention even before the opening feast" Malfoy practically screamed, pointing to his badge.

Jeff tilted his head on the side, looking at the silver piece of metal.

"What is the "P" for? Prat or Pathetic? Because right now, you look both."

The cabin erupted in laughter and even outside also as two more person joined the big group, the blonde idiot leaving in a storm with his gorillas in tow. The two newcomers got in the doorway but didn't enter as the cabin was already becoming pretty full. Jeff immediately made the link between the red head and the other he met at the station. The girl with bushy hair had an air to herself that screamed "book-worm" but she wasn't ugly in any way.

"Normally I'd be furious about that comment as I am also a Prefect but anybody that make Malfoy speechless get my respect." Said Ron sniffing from the good laugh.

"Oh of course! It means Prefect!... What is a Prefect?" Said Jeff as if it was very obvious before looking stupid again. This had everyone laughing again before Ginny came to his help.

"Guys, this is Jeffrey... ehm, Jenkins was it?" After a nod from the concerned, the youngest Weasley continued. "I met him in the station after you arrived with mom. He's a transfer student from America, that's why he's clueless right now."

Hermione seemed to brighten at that information and Jeff unconsciously leaned back a little to flee from the "I-wana-learn-things" look she gave him.

"Oh! I didn't know there was a school in America... Well I had my doubts as its on the other side of the ocean and there's too many people there to not have wizards too but I wasn't sure! Is the school big? Do you learn the same thing than us? Is there a Ministry of Magic like here? Is..."

Ron put his hand on the girl's mouth who was still asking questions in a low muffle as if not interrupted at all. "Ok Hermione we understand! He's new and interesting and all, but you're frightening the poor bloke."

As if to confirm his words, Jeff was currently hiding behind Nevile asking him to be his shield. Hermione did looked a bit ashamed, her cheeks reddening but she didn't add anything after that.

Straightening up from behind his hiding spot, the American began to laugh nervously but still decided to go with the flow.

"Well yes, there is a wizard school in America. Two in fact. Mine was on one of the island closer to mainland over Canada. Yes, freezing, but its warmer near the school, the heat is kept there by magic and all that stuff. The other one I don't know where it is but theories say its somewhere in the Caraïbans... lucky bastards..."

Now the whole compartment was listening calmly, everyone finding a way to squeeze themselves on the two bench. The conversation after that was light, mainly Ron almost fainting to the fact that there was no Quidditch in his school, Hermione explaining how Hogwarts worked, helped by the others and informing him a bit of the country's situation. Jeff knew that there was a war before with a Dark Lord and all the stuff coming with it, but the fact they were telling him he was back but that the Ministry wouldn't believe it shocked him a bit.

He started to talk about a war in America that about just ended a month ago or so but before he could elaborate, Hogsmeade was in sight and they changed in their robes, taking turns as there wasn't a lot of place to change. Harry though it was strange to see a student his age with no house colors and began to wonder how he would be sorted. He was fun and the raven haired boy hoped he would be sent to Gryffindor, he'd like a new friend that seemed to believe him.

"Wow, its original to have Thestrals pulling carts. I guess the only thing you see are carts pulling themselves, but it must add to the "Magical Charm" as my sis would say."

Jeff pointed to the front of the carriages while speaking. Most of the rest of the group looked at him strangely. Luna didn't seemed deranged by it at all while Harry was looking in awe at the skeletal black winged horses with a sort of revulsion and attraction at the same time. Nevile was avoiding looking at them at all. Jeff saw it and was a bit saddened to know what it meant.

"I see them too." Said Luna once she was seated. "I was seeing them since my first day."

This saddened Jeff even more, but he didn't say anything. Nevile and Ginny joined them but Harry, Hermione and Ron decided they'll take an other one as this one was becoming full. A small ride latter and they were reunited once more to enter the castle. The new student was indeed impressed by the size of the school and became giddy like one of the first year. Ginny said he should have taken the scenic route in the boats but Jeff only shrugged at the fact. He didn't get very far anyway because he was requested to follow a relieved looking McGonagall. Apparently he WAS supposed to take the boats and she was searching for him since the train arrived.

Luna went to her table while the rest sat at the Gryffindor one, speculating as for where Jeff would end up, but every one hoped he was made Gryffindor and dreaded for him to go in Slytherin.

* * *

><p>"All right! I'm with the birds!" Almost shouted Jeffrey. He dropped the sorting hat on the chair and went to sit on the long table, right next to Luna. All the Ravenclaw students where roaring with cheers and applause, welcoming the transfer student to their house.<p>

After a few more first year and a few, very few words from Dumbledore, the feast started and with it, loads of questions for the newcomer.

"So how is it in America?" Asked Li Su, an asian girl in the same year.

"Ehm... Nice? Gotta be more precise, there's a lot of stuff to say." Said Jeff with a small smile. He shrugged when he saw nobody really had specific questions and continued. "Well, the school I went is situated in one of the closest island over Canada. Family got specific point near their houses to regroup and use a portkey to the port. After that its a few hours sail away."

"That's pretty high up in the north, must be freezing." Commented Michel Corner.

"A lot yeah, but Magic Wards keep the surrounding of the school a bit warmer." Seeing people eying him but not asking question, Jeff continued. "Well, for the difference from here, we don't have houses and the school looks a lot like a muggle school in fact. We wear muggle clothes too. A big difference from what I heard about Wizard here, we are much closer to the muggle people in america and a lot of wizard decide to live as muggle and use magic to help their daily life. We don't have a ministry of magic like here, just a Magic Regulation Department in the muggle government. Secret of course, only a few people in the government know of it."

"You live like muggles?" Asked a surprised Terry Boot, his expression copy paste of every other around the table except Luna.

"Yeah, why not? We find it better to just blend with them, I don't understand why you separate yourself as much as that." Answered truthfully the American.

"We're too different. I can't imagine living without magic or without using it." Said Roger Davis from 7th year.

"Not that much, anyway not in America. We just have some abilities they don't. I guess its a life you get used to have over generations." Jeff shrugged before taking time to finally eat a bit. This action seemed to stop the questions a bit as most people around the table just realized they didn't eat much either. Some continued the conversation, debating on the muggles and their life-style. Some muggleborn were saying how much muggle technology was really useful and fun.

"Hey Jeff. If you're so close to muggles in America, I guess there must be much less Pure Blood." Asked Li Su after most people stopped eating and started chatting again. " I myself am half-blood, my father's a muggle engineer."

"No, Pure Blood families are very rare in America. In the end, real Pure Blood families are looked down by the rest of the wizards, mostly because the very old families that keep their blood status need to go more and more into inbreeding for it." Answered Jeff, his eyes becoming a little darker.

"Ew... Well here its the contrary. Pure Blood rule most of the ministry, the oldest houses being the strongest politically while mudbloo... I mean muggleborns are looked down." Morag McDougal received a lot of glares from people around when she almost said the wrong word, but Jeff was able to guess what was the missing letter to it anyway.

"Mudblood? Oh I love that! Brilliant! Sound like were tainted or something." Laughed Jeffrey, getting even more glares and stunned expression.

"I-its the worst word possible to talk about muggleborns!" Spit Kevin Entwhistle, looking very angry. "I'm muggleborn and I don't find it "brilliant""

"Well I'm much closer to a muggle too in fact. My father is a muggleborn and my mother is a muggle. My sis is muggle too, or we could say squib also..." Said matter-of-factually Jeff, pointing his fork with a bit of sausage on it toward Kevin. "Sorry if I seemed rude, but if you become insulted by a mere word, you're helping them. For my part, I find it funny because we have in fact only muggle blood and muggles aren't said to be tainted, so the taint to our blood would be the magic then, no offense to the pure blood and half blood. Not that I think like that, but Pure-Bloods and Half-Bloods saying muggleborn are Mudblood means they insult themselves as they have even more magic blood."

"That...Makes sense... I think..." Said Morag, a bit taken aback.

"I still don't like it." Added Kevin.

"You don't have to. They can say what they want, I'm proud to be a Mudblood!" Concluded Jeff.

Conversation continued a bit more lightly and drifted from subject to subject. Some time they went back to Jeff and what this or that was in America. They were all surprised to know that Thestrals were very common in America's forest and they were even more surprised to know that the carriages were in fact pulled by something. Luna stayed quiet for most of the feast, only talking when the subject interested her and asking Jeff if they had Crumple-Horned Snorkack in America, which made him laugh a lot. After a bit, Dumbledore stood up again and began his welcome speech. For the most part, it was regular rubbish that was also written in the schools brochures in America. "Don't do this, don't do that, result are this, consequences are that..." In the end, people rarely cared.

The new teacher speech was a bit more interesting. He didn't pay attention a lot but he did hear her horribly ugly girly laugh... or was she coughing? Doesn't really matter in the end, he hated it already. Murmurs around the tables were revealing enough, people were wondering what it would mean to have the ministry of magic take a more active role in their school... that or they were wondering how someone as "Pink" as her would be a good Defense teacher.

In the end, they were dismissed and as they were lead to the Ravenclaw tower, Jeff learned that his lack of sens of orientation would be very bad for him this year.

* * *

><p>"... so that's how it should be this year. Everytime you bring me something to rub in Potter and company's face, I'll reward you."<p>

Malfoy was just ending his regular annual speech, this year bribing the house to bring him dirt on the Boy-Who-Lived. Daphne Greengrass wasn't really listening anyway, but she had to bring her attention to the blonde boy when he decided to sit in front of her with a knowing smile on his face.

"Hello Greengrass. You had a nice summer?" He asked with a bit too much sugar in his voice to Daphne's taste.

"Pretty good yes, when you weren't there." Asnwered the Ice Queen of Hogwarts, barely lifting her eyes from her book to send a cold glare toward the ponce.

"As cold as always... I know you like being warm, I saw you on that beach in July." Added Malfoy leaning a bit closer.

"Don't think because our fathers are in negotiation for a partnership that it gives you a right to talk to me. I saw you also on that beach and I would suggest you eat more, your ribs are pretty repulsive. Much like you face in fact." Daphne simply turned a page in the book they had to buy for their DADA class. It was rubbish and very unsettling to know they would have to try and learn something from it this year, but it was more interesting than the conversation she was having with the Slytherin prince.

"You hurt me Daphne. Don't you think you should be more friendly with you new Ally?" Said Malfoy with a sickly grin and lustful eyes scanning her very well rounded features that were hinted even with the school robe.

"Ally? Our Father's are becoming allies, I don't tip in my father's business. Now please get off, you're wasting my time." Spat Daphne to the blonde, watching him comply with a false honorable bow. He was rapidly replaced by two more friendly faces.

"What did he want this time?" Asked Tracey Davis, her blonde best friend, sitting on her side.

"He want me to be more friendly now that our fathers are negotiating an alliance between our families..." She answered with dread in her eyes, slipping a bit out of her Ice Queen mask.

"I don't understand dad... He's different since... you know..." Started Astoria Greengrass, brown haired third year and sister of Daphne.

"Since the Dark Lord is back, yes." Completed the eldest of the two Greengrass. She eyed her sister who was looking more and more like their mother, dark brown shoulder length hair, blue eyes with a figure to kill, while she was becoming more and more like a female version of her father with waist long, slightly wavy black hair, brown eyes but very feminine body with generous curves at the good places. "I know he was a follower in the previous war but he stopped all dark activities when we were born... He says he's afraid the Dark Lord will come after us if he ignore his return and is now making an alliance with the Malfoy to "protect us". Bullshit, he wants the money and is willing to throw us at the Dark Lord's service for that. Mom would be ashamed if she was still alive..."

"What will we do?" Whispered Astoria who's eyes were watering and her voice started shaking. "I don't want to be in his..."

"We won't." Dryly cut Daphne, looking around to make sure nobody was eavesdropping. "No we won't. If he try to bind us to anything, we'll flee."

"You can come at my house!" Said Tracey, a bit too much cheerful about it. "I talked to my parents about you and my father is an Auror, he'll be able to help hiding you. He married a muggle and was a Gryffindor when at school, he doesn't have any specs of darkness in him... other than "That part" mom say she discovered on their wedding night."

"We don't want to hear about it..." Said Daphne, closing her eyes as a futile attempt to block mental images.

"What? I don't understand..." Asked Astoria. "Well I do understand that there must be something sexual to it but I don't see what you mean."

Daphne's eye bulged when she saw the smirk appear on her friend face. Her sister was only 13, this wasn't as subject she wanted to speak about with her but Tracey had a dirty mind and liked to dirty others mind. The more innocent, the more fun she had doing it. She had to stop her before she said too much. "Don't say it!"

But it was too late. Tracy opened her mouth to say it. "Mom say my dad's a beast in bed and likes it rough!"

Daphne's head hit the table in the middle in despair. The fact that it was a low table gave a strange look to the situation but nobody said anything.

"Doesn't it hurt your mother?" Asked Astoria, not at all phased by the subject.

Tracy could only smile as she looked at her "pupil". "No, she said she found out the same night that she loves it. Must be a bit masochist but meh, who am I to judge my mother's penchant, as long as she's happy. Lets change subject before your sister strangle me for tainting your mind."

The three friends talked a bit more before going to bed. Daphne watched her sister with a bit of jealousy. If boys were looking more at her than almost anybody else in the school, Daphne always thought it was her sister that was the luckiest. When she looked at her sister, she was seeing her mother, loving and gentle, beautiful and cheerful. But when she looked at herself in the mirror, she was seeing her father. Tall, selfish and cold. She wasn't really selfish herself, but she wasn't able to miss the resemblance between her father and the Ice Queen persona she built for herself.

Getting in her bed, she saw that Pansy and Millicent weren't in their beds. Probably in the boy's room playing "good girl" with Malfoy for Pansy and Crabe, Goyle, or both for Millicent. She found it utterly disgusting to think about but it cleared the room so she and Tracey could talk without risking anything. Sometime Astoria would join them with a friend from her year. Looking toward Tracey's bed, she saw her friend reading a smutty romance novel dressed in a very bold silk nightwear. She had a bust that was very prominent and was the envy of a lot of guys, and some girls in fact. Her well tanned skin was almost completely visible with no such mark as a tan line.

"Talk about daring. I wouldn't wear that kind of thing even with only girls around... certainly not with Millicent, I think she goes both ways..." Said Daphne, startling her friend a bit as she was well deep in fantasy.

"Well, it is comfortable and anyway, the gorilla found two of her own specie to shag in turn, I heard her saying she wouldn't come here to sleep anymore." Informed the blonde girl.

"I heard it too, but its still her room and she need to make it look like she sleep here so our head of house don't suspect anything." Countered the raven haired girl.

"Well I don't mind. She can lust over me for all I care, she's never going to touch me." She suddenly slapped her book closed and went to her friend bed, sitting on it at her side. "Speaking of lusting. What do you think of the new guy?"

"What about him? I don't know anything about him. Good looking and seem a bit too much energetic for me." Answered Daphne, still blushing a bit, knowing where the subject would go.

"Hehe. I find him yummy! Would have been good to have an other friend in Slytherin. But I know you had your eyes somewhere else. Since the Triwizard Tournement, since the first challenge in fact, your eyes became a "Potter-radar". I know you watched his arse when he entered the Great Hall and all the way toward his seat."

"That... That is not true..." Daphne's ears were now beat red from embarrassment. She wasn't fooling anyone with her denial, not even herself. Though, its wasn't true that it started after the Dragon. She was already fancying him a bit since third year when she was near him in herbology class.

She never spoke to him other than asking for the time once, but she listened to him and his friends talking and learned a lot about him that year. At first it was mild interest on the Boy-Who-Lived, but while the year continued on and on, it became more and more of a real interest on the boy himself, not the legend, and she started to hope she could talk to him, but the last time she tried the Weasley boy's glare when she approached changed her mind and she ended up only asking for the time. Of course, why would he accept to speak to a Slytherin?

At first she was good at hiding that interest, Tracey never doubted it. But while he was fighting that dragon, she became worried and lost her Ice Queen mask for a bit, allowing Tracey to find out that she liked the Golden-Boy. Since then, she was never left alone about it and of course, her sister learned everything when Tracey tried to push her to go and ask him out for the Yule ball.

"Well, maybe this year you'll have more chance. I'm sure we'll be mixed with them in potion this year again, Snape seem to like taunting Gryffindors in front of his House, especially him. I'm sure we can arrange it so we get a table near him." Tracey began poking her friend on her behind to get a reaction now that she rolled in her bed opposite of her, blushing madly and trying to ignore her friend's embarrassing but tempting words.

After a few taunts, she finally got back to her own bed and wished a good nights filled with spiky dark haired boys. In Daphne's mind, she wished herself the same thing even if she would never admit it. "Maybe Tracey's idea wasn't a bad one." She thought while slowly drifting into sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

Harry got up for the breakfast very early. Ron was still snoring, and he was certain Dean and Seamus were asleep too. He had a very heated altercation with the Irish and went to sleep almost immediately, frustrated and deeply saddened at the thought even his friends, or at least those he considered his friends, were turning on him. He knew he could count on Hermione, Ron and all the other Weasleys, even Nevile and that girl Luna, but it was already bad to read all these things in the newspaper, he didn't want to hear it from classmates. Angelina Johnson had been more straight forward in her opinion, not caring if Voldemort was back or not. As long as he could fly and catch the snitch before the other team she didn't care even if the Dark Lord himself was walking the school in a pink tutu flirting with the new DADA teacher. The mental image made Harry cringe and smile at the same time. It was a good thing to know some things didn't change.

Dressing up and taking the time to get himself clean, he went down to the Great Hall, certain he would be the first one and alone. It would be refreshing to have some time to himself. Unfortunately, and also surprisingly, he wasn't the first. At the Ravenclaw table sat Jeffrey, the transfer student. He smiled and waved to Harry who returned the gesture before sitting at the empty table of the Gryffindors. It was about six in the morning and nobody would come before a while.

Filling his plate with a few food, he wondered if the elves knew automatically when a student sat at a table because regardless of the time, food was appearing in front of him the moment he sat down. A few minutes latter, Jeff was standing behind him with a friendly smile.

"Hey! Harry Potter? Been hearing a lot about you since the train. Not good stuff though I don't care, I'll make my own opinion. Is it allowed to sit at other house tables?" He asked pointing to the bench on Harry's left.

"Oh! Sure! Except on opening feast and major events." Harry's mood had darkened when he spoke about how people didn't say good things on him but was relieved to know he was not easily convinced. He liked the guy enough to wish he could be a good friend. While his companion took a seat, Harry started the questions before he could start investigating on him. "So how come you're so early"

"Jet lag..." Said the almost muggleborn "Slept a good part of the train ride. I knew I was not sleepy because in America its like five to six hours early, so I forced myself to sleep. When I say force, I mean I hexed myself to sleep. Woke up early, around four-five in the morning, waited a bit in the common room to try and make my Gameboy working with no result then got down to take a run around the lake. I'll lose my shape if I don't take a run sometime now that I don't do martial arts anymore. Finally I entered the Great Hall about ten minutes before you."

"I see." Said Harry "You're not the first to try and bring an electronic device here. The Wards and the Magic in here cause too much interference and nothing electronic ever worked. Not like there's any electricity here anyway."

"Oh that's why! Well I had a spell to charge the batteries of any electronic device, its a basic spell in America. Damn, here I thought I could finish my game... Wait that means you have absolutely nothing electronic in here?" Jeff's shoulders slumped a bit and he grunted in disappointment. Harry assumed he really was used to have muggle equipment all the time.

The two chatted a while, Harry learning a lot about how wizards lived in America and he began to wonder if he would be more happy with that kind of lifestyle. Pretty soon, sooner than harry thought, students began appearing in the great hall and seating at different places. Harry saw a lot of girls coming and welcoming Jeff to the school, inviting him to sit with them and a lot of them giving their best impression of a tomato. Jeff negated every invitation gently but without any room for them to insist. Harry was impressed by the amount of tact and control he had over these girls, making him envy his ability and wishing he could do the same with his own stalkers, not that he had a lot recently. Hermione and Ron took a seat in front of the two boys and the talk continued.

"You know, I had a hard time sleeping tonight because of you." Said Hermione with a small grin. Ron had bulging eyes with dirty thoughts passing through his mind but Hermione explained herself before he could comment. "Every girls in my dorm were talking about you all night long. In fact, I think you're in to be a very hot topic this year as well as the most desired guy in school. At least for a few weeks."

Jeff simply grumbled at the fact, not commenting.

"By your reaction, I don't think you're happy about it." Said Hermione, tilting her head a little.

"Not really. I had a similar case before moving here. I told you there was a war that ended recently right?" With their nods, he continued. "Well I kinda saved a bunch of girls and the event spread like wildfire."

"What did you do?" Asked Ron, impressing Jeff at how he could talk and eat at the same time.

"Its was a war with a witch that, not like your own Dark Lord, wanted to get the muggles over the wizard. Something about her muggle boyfriend being killed by a wizard accidentally. I doubt its so trivial but that is what triggered it, I don't know the specifics. Anyway, she wasn't specially powerful but had a good number of followers and weapons for the muggles. She was creating hybrid magic and technological items allowing muggles to use some magic specific to one object like a wand that shot predetermined spells like reparo, shrinking charms or even battery recharging charms, these kind of stuff, good idea in my opinion, but she was mainly doing weapons. Imagine a gun shooting bullets mixed with a bombarda? Well, back to the topic. Our school was raided in the last two months of the war. They had lost a lot of followers and were now desperate to turn the tables so they attacked the biggest target they could think of that was accessible. The fight wasn't very long. They entered and began shooting everything that moved. A few students died, as did two teachers, but once the surprise effect was passed, we relatiated. They weren't that many, but two of them were aiming at a cluster of girls and I was close to the enemy. I banished one of them in front of the other's gun just as he shot. His ally down, he turned toward me but I was already on him with a steak knife and I got his throat."

The three Gryffindors plus a few that were listening looked at themselves, visibly surprised by the story. Harry saw that Jeff wasn't sounding proud or anything, he was stating facts and his tone seemed to have darkened a bit when he got the the death of the students. Ginny was the first to speak. "You actually killed someone?"

"Yeah." He answered, his shoulder slumping a bit. "Not proud of it in anyway. It was instinct and luck, nothing else really. They were desperate and more like suicidal than anything else. The fact that they were looking somewhere else gave me my chance and I didn't have time to hesitate or I'd have more classmates dead. In the end, I got these girls I saved on my back plus a few more that thought I had been heroic. Not pleasant."

"I think you shouldn't spread that story. You're already popular overnight and they don't know yet of your "exploit"." Said Hermione.

"Too late I think." Said Ginny, looking at the Hufflepuff table where the story could already be heard and "improved" by some. Jeff head found the table inviting and splatted it in his scrambled eggs, not even caring about the food in his hair.

* * *

><p>"Good afternoon, class." Said Umbridge once every students were seated in the DADA classroom. A few uncertain murmurs were heard, but no real answer. The new Defense Against Dark Arts teacher frowned a bit before addressing class again, keeping her sickeningly sweet tone as if the students were kids. "That won't do. When I say "Good afternoon, class!" you must answer clearly "Good afternoon, Professor Umbridge!" So lets try again... Good afternoon, class!"<p>

This time the class all said clearly but still reluctantly "Good afternoon, Professor Umbridge...". The new professor took her place behind her desk and started with calling each students name one after the other while they had to oblige and answer "present" every time. The toad-woman continued after that by writing the goals of the class on the board. After a few words and the dreaded mention of "Wands aside, quills in hand", everybody knew the class would be boring to no end. Worse, after reading a few paragraphs, or at least trying to, Harry and anybody with a bit of intelligence knew that not just the class, but the whole year would be boring and totally disappointing, if not even worse than Lockhart's classes.

After a few minutes, Harry saw that Hermione had her hand in the air, her book still closed on her desk. The raven haired boy couldn't remember a single time she delayed the opportunity to read a book, be it interesting or not. Umbridge took her time, feigning to look somewhere else so she could ignore the raised hand, but a little cough from the girl forced her to turn around.

"Yes? A question on the chapter miss ehm..." She said.

"Granger. And no, a question on the goals of this class. I find them lacking." Said Hermione with seriousness.

"Lacking? What would they be lacking? They are very well adapted to the B.U.S.E year and approved by the Ministry."

"Maybe, but they don't say anything about practicing the spells." Answered the bushy haired girl.

Umbridge expression seemed to darken and take a more stern look. Gone was the falsely friendly look, but girly high-pitched voice was still there. "And why would you need to practice those spells? Do you think you will be attacked in my class?"

"What? We wont practice spells?" Said Ron who had the same look as somebody who was slapped.

"Your hand, Mr Weasley." Snapped Umbridge before ignoring his raised hand and turning toward Dean. "Yes?"

"But, the OWLs does have a practical side to it, how will we be able to achieve our OWLs if we can't do the spells?" Asked the dark skinned boy.

"If you study theory enough, you won't have any problem to do the spell when its needed in a perfectly safe and controlled environment." Answered Umbridge as if it was the most evident thing in the world.

"And what about defending ourselves outside the school? Or even inside as it already happened to me often?" Said Harry who was becoming a bit angry.

"Who would attack a few students? I don't see the point?" Asked Umbridge.

"I would put a guess on Lord Voldemort?" Said Harry, now standing.

The class went quiet, a few coughs were heard but Harry saw that the effect he had was even worse than what he thought. People were avoiding his gaze, at least most of them. Umbridge looked shocked before regaining her composure and glaring daggers at Harry.

"Ten points removed for Gryffindor. He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is dead since long and the fact that he is back is a lie!" Practically shouted the DADA teacher.

"He is back! I saw him! I fought him! I'd have an other witness if Cedric wasn't killed before my eyes by Voldemort's follower who was the one that brought him back!" Harry was now shouting and gripping the edges of his desk with force.

"There is no Dark Lord! Its preposterous to think that! You will have a detention with me tonight at eight Mr. Potter!" Shouted back Umbridge.

"Ok, lets assume that Voldemort isn't back, though he is. What if an other Dark Lord rise like the one Jeffrey, the transfer student, told us about that was defeated only months ago? What about criminals? Or what about Dementors like those who attacked me this summer and had me in a court for saving my cousin's live?" Harry had now walked in front of Umbridge and was standing there defiantly.

"All lies! I had this transfer student in my class this morning and let me tell you he was put in his place for exaggerating and spreading lies." She seemed proud of that statement with a strange twinkle in her eyes, as if she was remembering something really pleasant. "Anyway, what happens in America is not what happens here, their government is lacking control on it's subjects and a criminal, not a Dark Lord, made some fuss, not something that can happen here. The Ministry is taking care of protecting you from criminals and its completely impossible that Dementors would leave Azkaban! You were in court for a good reason and shouldn't be here Mr. Potter! You were lucky we didn't have more evidence! Now take this letter and go see McGonagall so she is aware of your situation."

Dolores scribbled a few words on a piece of parchment – a PINK parchment – and shoved it in Harry's hand. The Boy-Who-Lived turned on his heels and stormed out of the classroom, using an simple accio charm to get his bag and things as fast as possible without staying longer in the classroom. The only thing he left was the book, still on the first page of the chapter they had to read.

Harry all but ran to McGonagall's class and waited for it to end so not to disturb a PROPER and EFFICIENT class, unlike Umbridge's one. As soon as McGonagall dismissed her group of third year, Harry entered with rage evident in his look and his pace. The aged teacher was surprised to see the enraged student and was hoping it wouldn't be something to deepen her headache.

"What is it, Mr. Potter?" Asked the transfiguration teacher. Harry simply handed the parchment over. Upon seeing the color, she could guess who it was from and wasn't please by it as that same person was the reason for her current headache. After reading the surprisingly short note, McGonagall let out a breath she didn't knew she was holding. "You know what it say?"

"No m'am" Answered the Potter son.

"You have a detention every evening of the week with Umbridge for two weeks and she reserve herself the right to prolong it if needed." The aged woman looked at her student with sympathy but she had to remain strict. "Why did she give you a detention?"

"Because I told the class that Voldemort was back and argued with her about the fact that danger is everywhere." Told the young boy.

"I see... Mr. Potter... Harry, you know she is from the Ministry? You understand what it means? You need to keep you temper in check, things will be hard this year."

"But, she won't teach us anything! Its gonna be theory about non violent solution and theory about avoiding difficult situations but nothing to help us defend ourselves or even to pass our OWLs!"

"I know, but I can't do anything except advise you to practice out of class. You should present yourself to your detention, its gonna start soon." Concluded McGonagall, turning back to her desk to finish some paperwork.

With a bit of deception in the turn of events, Harry strode out of the transfiguration class and to the pink toad's office. His steps were decisive and long, wanting to get rid of it the fastest possible. While approaching the office, Harry slowed down a bit, being slightly in advance anyway, and took his time to regain his composure. "Breath in, breath out... Breath in, breath out... good. Be calm and do what she ask without question, then you'll be free to go."

Knocking on the door, he waited so she would answer. It took time, in fact he almost thought she wasn't there after one full minute of waiting but in the end, the door opened itself and he heard the teacher's voice inviting him inside. With her hand, she beckoned him to sit down in a wooden chair next to her desk. She was doing paperwork and Harry hoped it wouldn't be a detention like the one he had with Lockhart, though he doubted it would be that easy.

"Please write on this parchment "I must not tell lies"." She asked of him.

"Lines?" Harry thought. If that's all it was, it wasn't as bad as he anticipated. He went for his bag to get his quill and ink but was stopped by Umbridge.

"No, no, you will use my own quill which is a little special." She said before he asked any question, handing him a black quill with a very sharp metal tip, a smirk on her face saying she couldn't wait for when he saw in what her quill was special. "No need for ink either."

"How many times must I write it?" Asked Harry, beginning to feel nervous of the situation.

"As much as its needed for the message to... sink in" She concluded before waving him to his parchment.

Harry shrugged, telling to himself he was in for a looong time writing the same line over and over. He didn't doubt the message would indeed sink in after two weeks of detention. Readying himself and letting out a long sigh, he started writing. He found it interesting to see that the quill inked itself, though he wondered why it was blood-red and not black as regular ink. He got his answer as soon as the line he just wrote sank in the parchment and the back of his hand itched strongly. Looking at it, he was the same word he just wrote now on the back of his hand, cut in his skin before it healed, leaving a light red mark.

"Something is wrong, Mr. Potter?" Asked Umbridge with a mischievous smile.

Harry fought his urge to shout at her that this couldn't be legal, that it was torture, but his pride wouldn't let him and a part of his mind that was more rational told him it wouldn't do any good anyway.

"Nothing, just a itch." Answered Harry with a defiant tone.

Not an other word was said after that. Harry complied and wrote line after line for five hours. Over the time the pain became more and more strong until it faded in an uncomfortable sour feeling, as if he was becoming used to it. When the clock showed 10:00 Pm, Umbridge took a look at the back of his hand and had a satisfied smirk at the now heavily bleeding hand, seeing it heal fast but leaving the letters more and more visible.

"Tomorrow same time, Mr. Potter. Don't bring anything next time, its useless." She said while dismissing him.

On his way tot he Gryffindor tower, the Golden-Boy favored his bloody hand while cursing the despicable woman that was not only torturing him with bliss in her eyes, but was also sabotaging their year. In his mind, he was starting to wonder how he could have her discredited and thrown out. He remembered the look McGonagall had and he knew that reporting the use of the black quill wouldn't be enough, that she could deny it in block and the Ministry would trust her. As if anybody trusted him anyway now. Everybody thought he was a despicable liar, the writing on his hand being enough of a proof. No, he was alone in this. He endured the cruciatus curse a few times already, this was nothing.

Hidding the wound in his sleeve, he went to sit with Hermione and Ron.

"What did she make you do?" Asked his best friend.

"Lines... I got two weeks of writing the same line over and over..." Answered Harry without a speck of hesitation.

"Oh. Its not that bad." Said Ron before his eyes bulged as realization came to him. "What about Quidditch tryouts? They're Friday!"

"Yes, what about the tryouts, Harry?" Asked a not very happy looking Angelina.

"Sorry, but from from the looks of it, I seriously doubt she'll let me delay my detention a single minute." Answered Harry.

"Then watch out." The black woman advised him with a stern look. "I told you I couldn't care less if Umbridge was in fact the Dark Lord in disguise, if you can't make it to practices enough for my taste, you can't make the team. Don't think I'm happy about it but I won't give you special treatment even if you were the best seeker to ever grant the world its presence. Keep your temper in check and keep out of detention, even if it means you have to lie so she's happy with you."

"Yeah... McGonagall advised me the same thing... Don't worry, I don't plan on giving her more reasons to put me in detention. Now leave me." Honestly said Harry but still putting enough venom in his voice to sound angry.

He wasn't mad at Angelina, she just happened to push his buttons at the wrong time. He could understand her situation and he probably would have thought the same in her position. Quidditch was his favorite thing at school, he didn't want to throw it away for petty arguments. He was still angry thought and didn't feel that sad when he saw her frown and walk away.

"That was a bit mean from you Harry." Said Hermione. She could see it wasn't Angelina that made him angry but he just spilled everything on her and she saw that the 7th year, even if she wasn't showing it, was a bit hurt by Harry's tone. "You should apologize. I don't know what Umbridge really made you do, but she didn't deserve for you to spill it on her."

"What do you mean "really" made me do? She made me do lines, that's it." Said Harry to avoid Angelina's subject and now a bit nervous.

"I mean that if it was regular lines, it wouldn't have worked you up that much." When nobody looked, she grabbed his hand and lifted it to her eyes, seeing the dried blood on it and the mark. "Damn I saw you wince when you grabbed the chair with your hand but... I didn't expect that!"

"Well yeah, it was lines. Lines with a quill that use your own blood as ink and carve what you write on the back of your hand at the same time. Happy? Its nothing really, I've felt worse." Snapped Harry, now flaring his anger toward his friend. When he saw the look of sadness in her eyes though, he deflated a bit. "Sorry. I mean yeah it look bad, but I can't do anything about it."

Ron saw the wound also and dropped his own quill on his homework. "Harry! She's using a blood quill! That's a banned dark item, its illegal!"

"I'm sure it is. But she's with the government and nobody there trust me or even Dumbledore." Said Harry while starting an introduction to his Potion essay. Ron dropped the subject for the moment but it was obvious that the redhead wasn't finished. Harry winced at each words he wrote with his right hand and began to wonder if he shouldn't learn to write with his left. He forced himself to work even though almost every other students went to sleep, working well over midnight. Hermione and Ron tried to stay with him a bit but left only an hour or so after he came back.

Its not that he decided to be responsible about his homework more than before, he simply knew he could not sleep anyway and as he would have a detention everyday, he should take all the time he had to finish his essays, Potion first as Snape wouldn't mind giving him a detention also straight when he finished with Umbridge. He might have been angry, but he was honest when he said he'd do what he can to avoid more detention with Umbridge. He would also apologize to Angelina as Hermione proposed he'd do, now that most of his anger was washed away, he felt a bit of shame over how he shouted at her.

In the end, he became sleepy and went to bed after securing his half done essay. On his way, he now started to wonder what he should do about his DADA classes. He had to learn spellwork and practice it, but where to start? What spells are used in OWL exams? He resolved himself to speak about it to Hermione, he doubted she would leave it at that either.

* * *

><p>It didn't take long for the story to spread. Over the week, the altercation between the Boy-Who-Lived and the Defense teacher was on every conversations. Harry learned that Jeffrey, contrary to him, didn't insist too much when Umbridge said he was a liar and got off with only losing twenty points to Ravenclaw. Now when people where asking him about the war in America he simply said that there was a small criminal that was using very Dark magic who was able to regroup an army and kill a lot of people, but that it certainly was not a Dark Lord and that his government simply was ineffective. The sarcasm in his tone when he was saying that convinced everybody that reality was something else.<p>

Harry did apologized to Angelina the next morning. She seemed surprised by it but accepted it, saying she wouldn't be as forgiving next time though. He continued to serve his detention without a word every night. Umbridge shortened it a bit to three hours from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM after two more. She said it was because he seemed to behave himself but Harry knew it was because she herself didn't like rushing from her last class and be stuck with him all evening.

Friday night, he hoped to be out earlier and see the tryouts but Umbridge made just the contrary and kept him until 10:30 PM. Enraged and with his hand dripping blood on the floor like never before, Harry made his way to the common room. The moment he entered he was greeted by a Ron, disheveled but with a wide grin plastered on his face.

"I made it Harry!" He almost screamed. "I made the team as the new keeper!"

"That's great!" Said Harry louder than he thought, smiling brightly and momentarily putting aside his bad evening.

Before he could congratulate more his friend, Angelina took him to the side while the new Gryffindor Keeper started describing how he made the saves in the tryouts.

"Harry, I know he's your friend and all. The fact is, he wasn't that great at the start, some others even made more saves than him. He's the nervous, self-critical type. He missed the first few shots which were very easy and his confidence dropped, but after I gave him an easy shot that he blocked with luck, he completely switched and made the best saves I saw in all my seven years at Hogwarts." She explained to him in a low tone. "What I mean is that he isn't regular. He can be great as much as he can be bad and it all depends on his self-confidence at the moment. Being his friend, its up to you to raise his spirit enough before practices and mostly before matches. Think you can do that?"

"Yeah, of course!" Answered Harry with a confident smile.

"Perfect." The team Captain smiled and stood up. "Now go and congratulate him. If he ask, I just renewed my warning that I'll throw you out of the team if you miss practices after your detention is finished. Which is still true, so behave!"

"Aye m'am!" Answered Harry, completely forgetting he was supposed to be angry right now. There are things like this that can make him feel better in just the time it take to say Quidditch.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the castle, a black haired girl had her face in her pillow, mumbling about damn bushy hairs, library and suicide techniques. Tracey was trying to comfort her friend while Astoria looked with amusement in her eyes.

"It wasn't that bad, he just didn't hear you..." Said the blond.

"He heard me, he looked at me but after that I panicked and couldn't talk anymore. He thought the "Hello Harry" came from Hermione that just HAD to be behind me." She continued to mumble in her pillow after that about how pathetic she was. She indeed tried to start a conversation with the boy of her dream when she crossed him outside of the library just as he was leaving, but after seeing who said it, he doubted that a Slytherin would great him and just assumed it was Hermione that talked to him, being just behind the dark haired beauty at that precise moment.

"That was just your first try. Its just too bad there wasn't anyway to sit near him in potion this week. Of course, there is still next week. Or we could try in Transfiguration, McGonagall will certainly be less strict about speaking in class with a Gryffindor. Or even Care of Magical Creature." Tracey rocked her friend's back in comfort but Daphne stayed in her bed as if the world had ended.

"That's one of those shows you get only once in a lifetime." Said Astoria with an evil grin. "Daphne Greengrass, Hogwarts Ice Queen, crying in her pillow for a boy because she was ignored. How many guys YOU ignored? They're still living."

At that, the eldest of the Greengrass looked up to her sister with half rage half brooding eyes.

"What? You mean I should give up?" She asked.

"No, but I thought you would be more Slytherin in your ways toward ending your virginity." Said Astoria, getting a laugh from Tracey and a scowl from Daphne.

"That's not my aim... yet..." She said, the last word being but a whisper but enough for her best friend to hear it. She didn't push the subject, it was already a big progress to have her admit her urges as much as that. Tracey would have wept tears of pride if she let herself.

"I know" Replied Astoria, rolling her eyes but not having heard her last word. "I mean, where is the Ice Queen now? You, and Tracey, you are both known for something in that castle, what is it?"

"We are..." Started Tracey before smiling mischievously. "Manipulative."

"Exactly!" Shouted Astoria.

"But I don't want to manipulate him into liking me, I want him to like the REAL me!" Countered Daphne.

"I never said to manipulate him into falling for you, that would be too easy. Just tying him on a chair and stripping in front of him would have more effect than any love potion, but I know its not what you want." Tracey was now really having tears of pride while looking at the younger of the two sisters. Thirteen and already so perfect!

"What you need to do, is to manipulate the events to create you the best opportunity to start a conversation. But you know he won't really trust you if you don't prove you're on his side." Continued Astoria.

"And how should I do this?" Asked Daphne, now curious.

"What is Harry currently doing of his evenings?"

"Detention with Umbridge."

"And what did he do to get these detentions?"

"He... Told that You-Know-Who is back... you mean!"

"Exactly. Its going to be a hard week, but its gonna be worth it in the end, don't you think?" Astoria concluded the discussion here and left her sister pondering about everything she was told.

Tracey was still weeping tears of pride while looking at the door where her most prized pupil just left. "She is... Machiavellian!"


	3. Chapter 3

New week, new problems. When Jeffrey woke up and went for his usual jog around the lake, he saw that a new announcement was pined on the board in the common room.

**EDUCATIONAL DECREE # 23**

Jeff read through the decree and his shoulder slumped. The DADA teacher, which he and at least the three quarter of the school didn't have a good opinion of, was made High Inquisitor, a position created by that same educational decree. That meant loads of changes starting now. For his part, he was wondering why he had to move here now of all times.

First, they were told that the last Dark Lord was dead since about 15 years, but he learns that not only is he back, but the government isn't even believing it.

Second, Hogwarts, directed by the worldly famous Albus Too-Much-Names Dumbledore, was on it's way to become the worst school that ever existed.

And lastly but not least, he was now even more popular with the girls here than his older school.

Sighing, he walked out of the Ravenclaw's tower before anyone else woke up. While running, he thought about his week. It still has been an interesting one. They didn't have much Herbology classes in America, too cold for the plants to grow. He found it funny to fight a plant that tries to whip you when collecting its fruits, he had a few light bruises but had a real blast doing it, much to the surprise of the other students. Potion sucked, that was for sure. He hated cooking and brewing was about the same for him. Worse, their teacher here, while good in his subject, was a pain. He didn't have anything to say about the Care of Magical Creatures class or the Ancient Runes class, other than the fact they were more advanced than the ones he had in America. Charms was slightly disappointing, not because of the teacher but because they were much less advanced than he was. Transfiguration was something else thought. He was exactly at the same level than the rest of the class but the teacher, while strict, was definitely his favorite because her explanations where direct and precises and also remained just to every students regardless of their houses.

But the worst remained of course the Defense class. He couldn't even say if he was more or less advanced, because the class was a joke. Negotiation tactics? How to avoid getting in dangerous situations? The best way to signal for the authorities to come and take care of everything? He wasn't stupid, he heard her speech at the beginning of the year and Flitwick even let slip the fact that she said teachers should limit themselves to theory. They also had OWLs in America and Jeffrey wasn't planning to let the toad ruin his career now that he was in said examination's year.

After a few laps, he entered and ate his breakfast rapidly so he would have time to hit the showers before his first class of the week. At first he thought it would be a good monday, but it certainly wasn't in the end as he had the Pink Freak for a double class with Slytherin. Not that he minded the Snake house in it's whole, but that Malfoy and his goonies never helped his mood.

A quick shower later, he was entering the class just behind two girls from Slytherin who seemed to argue. He didn't heard all of it but the black haired one seemed to be supposed to do something she wasn't that eager to do.

"I already explained you why you had to make sure nobody thought that." Said the blonde.

"I know, but I just don't care what they think in the end, why should I hide it?" Answered the raven haired.

"Because its going to be more fun that way! Imagine their faces when you end up with him, them not seeing anything, then BAM! The cat's out of the hat. Imagine Malfoy's face when he see you with him! I'll have to get that Gryffindor boy with the camera to take a few shots of the scene." Added the shorter of the two.

"Alright you convinced me. But then we need someone else to start the subject." Countered the one he remembered was named Daphne.

"Maybe I could help." Interrupted Jeff, making both girls jump. They were the first in class and Umbridge wasn't there either. The American laughed at their surprise and their almost scared faces. "Sorry, didn't want to make you jump that much but I couldn't help to overhear. What subject should I start?"

"Why would you help us?" Asked Tracey.

"You want to do something Malfoy's not going to like. That's enough for me." Jeff sat down while saying that, the two girls staying up for a moment, thinking, but Tracey already had a big smile on her face.

"That's even better in fact, he's perfect for the task." She said, pointing to their new ally.

"You're going to get in trouble with Umbridge if you help us." Countered Daphne.

"That's an other reason why I want to help then. Shoot, what should I do?" He urged them a bit before an other student arrived.

"Ok... There's a passage in the chapter about using defensive magic when there is no option. They even mention a few useful spells for these situations. I need someone to challenge Umbridge about them, saying that even the book she makes us read say that knowing some spells is important. I want her to bring back the subject that the Dark Lord is not a threat anymore." Explained Daphne.

"Oh, easy enough. You can count on me. But I guess I can't know in advance why you need that?" Asked the only boy present.

"You'll see. I hear people coming, we never spoke!" At that, the two girls went to sit farther away while Malfoy was coming in, boasting as always.

It didn't take too long to have all the class present and the teacher to ask them to read the next chapter. Jeff didn't really paid attention to the text itself, but simply searched for the passage Daphne mentioned. He was pleased to see the very small list of spells that are useful in the worst case scenarios. Lifting his hand, he waited for his teacher to grant him the right to speak.

"Yes, Mr. Jenkins?" She asked reluctantly, seeing that most people had stopped reading to wait for the question.

"Thank you, Mrs. Umbridge." Jeff said so he at least seemed polite. "I was just wondering... This chapter give us a list of useful spells in dire situations. Will they be part of the class?"

"A list of spells? I seriously doubt it, this is a book about defensive attitudes, not defensive spells." Said Umbridge, looking shocked. At that, Jeff understood that she probably didn't even read the chapter before asking the students to read it. That, added to everything else, confirmed his suspicion that she was really willingly sabotaging their chances to defend themselves. Still, he had a part to play.

"Well yes, its mentioned here on page thirty six, third paragraph, sixth line. 'Should the situation demand it, it is good to have a few defensive spells in your arsenal. When confronted by a situation where negotiations are not possible and there is no available way to seek help from a older or simply more apt wizard, it is recommended to at least know the Protego spell, Expelliarmus, Stupefix and Incarcerous as well as practicing them often...'" Jeff finished reading and saw a totally shocked Umbridge, her jaw slack and hanging, accentuating her likeliness with toads.

"Ehm... Yes, I see which passage you're mentioning. But this book was written in a darker age and I can assure you that it is not needed anymore to think that way." Countered the adult. She was furiously fidgeting with the rim of her horrid pink jacket with obvious signs of nervousness.

"I personally think the current age is as dark as it once have been." Stated the American, getting to the part where he gets in trouble. He saw a few Ravenclaw eye him as if he was crazy but didn't say anything.

"Watch out, Mr. Jenkins. I will not have you say more lies in this class." The teacher now had a furious look on her face.

"Which lies? People died in my country and people are dying in this one too, not from natural diseases or accidents, people ARE attacking others for various reasons. You must know of this Sirius Black that escaped from your prison that was supposed to be perfect, he's even known in America. I doubt I'll have the possibility to negotiate or find time to warn authorities if I even find myself in front of him. Same thing with your Dark Lord that is supposed to be dead."

"The Dark Lord is dead and Sirius Black wont be a problem for long now. The Ministry of Magic is in vivid search of him." Bellowed Umbridge, completely enraged to have a fifteen year old boy bring arguments that she couldn't fight properly. She was about to punish the boy when an other voice was heard in the classroom.

"Mrs. Umbridge." Started Daphne. The professor was too much disturbed to think about the fact she didn't raise her hand. "Professor Dumbledore mentioned last year that You-Know-Who was back and i had my doubts. Then, the Ministry started to say it was only a rumor and that it wasn't true. But last class, you voiced that fact so loudly and denied too much arguments for me to still trust your and the government's words blindly. So I made my researches and found that not only is there a lot of dark magic that are known to reach a certain level of immortality, but that it wasn't the first time a wizard was able to come back from the dead. Do you still deny those facts and why is the government ignoring everything?"

Umbridge was startled and was now shaking. She was losing and she knew it. She had to silence them both before they went too far. "Miss Greengrass. You disappoint me, I thought better of you considering I know your father pretty well. I'm afraid I will have to put both you and Mr. Jenkins in detention all week for spreading and encouraging lies. Please present yourself to Mr. Filch office at five o'clock every evening. He will take care of your detention as I am already taking care of an other. There will be no more arguments or points will start to go away."

Daphne kept her mask of ice for the rest of the class. People wondered how she was keeping herself so calm while she must be so angry. On the contrary, she was happy that it went so well. She had hoped to be put in detention with Harry but at least he will know that she believe him. She had to keep appearance of it being a simple argumentation over facts, not her taking sides, but she hoped she would soon get the opportunity to have him know that she was indeed on his side. Still, it seemed to have worked as the rest of the Slytherins were not eyeing her suspiciously, Malfoy even had a sort of happy smile that she knew too well. He would try to approach her again after her detention and try to look good. Probably by saying he trusted her and believed in her arguments. As if he needed to tell it, his father was called to the Dark Lord and she wouldn't be surprised if he had drawn a Dark Mark on his left arm in hope.

"Hey Harry!" Said Dean while the trio was sitting at the Gryffindor table, the next morning. "Heard that? There are two more students in detention because they said You-Know-Who is back."

"What? Really? Who?" Asked Harry, ashamed to be happy that people were in detention for these reasons.

"Jeffrey Jenkins, from Ravenclaw. And, you won't believe it, Daphne Greengrass, the one and only Ice Queen of Slytherin!" Said the black boy.

Harry was awestruck by the fact a Slytherin was believing him. Daphne didn't knew it, but her stratagem worked even better. Slytherin students were remembering that she was simply putting facts in places, but the other houses only had one fact in mind : she believed in Voldemort's return.

"I'm sure she believe it, she must be a Death Eater's daughter, like everybody in Slytherin." Stated Ron as if it was obvious.

Harry, though, was still doubtful. "Ron, have I ever told you that I was almost sent to Slytherin? And I think that my parents were the farthest from Death Eaters you can imagine. So, I don't know. Maybe she's just not as deaf as the others."

This had Ron gape at him, but he couldn't say anything else because Hermione spoke first. "I got her in Ancient Runes and Arithmancy, she have an outer shell to repel people but I never saw her associate herself to anybody outside of Tracey Davis, who is not only half blood, but living in muggle London. I remember them saying something last week about Daphne hating her father."

"Still, I don't trust her." Concluded Ron before ferociously attacking his bacon. Harry shrugged and went back to eating too, the discussion drifting to other subject and he didn't think about it for the moment.

That night, when he got back from his detention, he met Hermione in the common room. She was alone at a table in a corner and most of the house was in their dormitory, including Ron. She had her DADA book open with an essay that seemed finished in front of her. That's when he remembered he wanted to speak to her about the DADA class, but she beat him to it.

"Harry, I need to ask you a favor." She said before he even sat down. Harry nodded and waited to know what she wanted, "This class in ridiculous. We learn nothing to defend ourselves, worse, nothing to pass our OWL."

Harry chuckled to Hermione's priorities but didn't say anything, it wasn't surprising. "I actually wanted to talk to you about that too."

"Great, because I think you should teach us." She stated bluntly.

"Wait – What?" Harry's eyes bulged at that. "I in fact thought YOU could teach us, or at least tell us what to learn outside of class. We all have Friday free so we should have time to practice outside."

"No Harry. Well, yes, I'll bring ideas and things to learn, but you are better at me in Defense, you have more experience." She countered.

"Not experience, luck, it was all luck and help from better people." Harry claimed.

"That is still experience of the real thing. Also, you can make the Patronus charm, you handle Expeliarmus better than most and I know you can learn about anything as long as you put the effort. I'll help, of course, but in the end, you'll be the teacher because I'm not as good as you." The muggleborn was rolling her parchment and sealing it without looking away from Harry. "Beside, I don't think it would be fair to have only us three, we should invite more people, only a few I promise."

"Alright... I guess it can't be a bad thing. But we have to hide it from Umbridge, even if a study-group is not something against the rule, I have a feeling she won't see that from a good eye and will try to stop us." conceded Harry.

"You were easier to convince than I thought..." Said Hermione, her surprise making Harry frown. "Well, of course we must keep it hidden from Umbridge. As for gathering people sometime, I think one week would be enough of a wait and I know exactly where to gather people to talk about it. There is an empty room on the fourth floor that is far away from any class and teacher office, but is about halfway of any of the other Houses common rooms. In that time, I'll prepare a list of spells needed for OWLs and you prepare what you think is important to know to defend ourselves. We'll practice the spells together with Ron after the meeting. You should sleep now, good night Harry!"

Without leaving a place for arguments, Hermione left the common room in a flash of bushy brown hairs, leaving a Harry with is mouth open and a finger raised, but nobody to hear his counter argument. "What did I got myself into..."

In the end, Harry did try to prepare his part. He didn't knew who will be part of it, Hermione always evaded the question when he asked. He did propose to Jeff to help him during Herbology and the American seemed eager to do something constructive. Harry thought his insight would be good as he already lived a war and was rumored to be well in advance in charms.

His week detention with Umbridge finally ended on that Friday and when he asked Jeff about his, he was answered that he and Daphne would kill the first one they saw that was careless when going to the bathroom. Harry concluded they had to wash the bathrooms without magic, a classic from Filch as it saves him work. At first he wanted to ask more to him about the Slytherin but judged that it would be meaningless as they probably were not mixing bathrooms, him in the boy's and her in the girl's.

The meeting was finally scheduled on Monday next week, right after their DADA class. Hermione mentioned that everybody knew they had to remain quiet about it and didn't seem to be afraid of Umbridge learning anything. Ron had been excited by the idea and had even proposed a few things that Hermione said she'll consider, like a silent communication method. Over the weekend, they mainly concentrated on their homework because Harry was late, being in detention every evening, and Ron was late, being lazy. In the end, they were all having a mixture of excitement and nervousness about what they were doing.

"Do you think Trelawney will stay long as a teacher?" Asked Ron to Harry as they were finishing their Dream Journals for the week.

"I doubt it. Umbridge was smiling at her in a way that was unmistakable. She was eager to have her fired. Not that Trelawney have ever been a good teacher, but everything that make "Professor Umbrella" happy makes me unhappy." Answered Harry while writing that he dreamed his bed had grown red eyes, teeth and snake-like arm, ate him together with his Firebolt.

Ron snickered at the nickname they found for her. In fact, Ron had made a remark about the fact she resembled the pink umbrella Hagrid had before to use magic. Harry said it was a good one as her name started the same way so they started to call her that way. Hermione found it pretty childish but they did see her smile though she kept denying it.

"For my part, I wonder how she get to her classes now that she pass every day inspecting others." Said Hermione who was reading Harry's Transfiguration essay.

"Oh Jeff told me." Said Harry "She seem to try and get in our class the most, probably to keep an eye on me now that I ended my detention. But he said that Monday, when she was with us in charms, she left the class, asking them to read the next chapter and she put wards telling her if any magic was used, if anybody spoke and if anybody stood up. In the end, he said it was the best class because he slept all of it."

"I hope we'll have that kind of classes." Said Ron with pleading eyes.

"Yeah, I'd bring my essays to finish them there." Said Hermione.

"How predictable. When Hermione want to break the rules, its to work." Ron shook his head while saying that but still had a smile on his face.

"Its not a bad idea." Concluded Harry. "Though I'd prefer to simply give it up. Its not like we'll learn anything anyway."

At that, Hermione looked at him with big eyes. Not horrified eyes, surprised eyes. "That, Harry, is probably the best idea you had today. Its not needed to follow a class to pass the OWLs! But normally, its just impossible. Now though, there is no reason to continue the class."

"Really? Its not mandatory to attend classes to pass our OWLs?" Asked Ron, thrilled.

"Of course not! There are even parents that teach their kids at home, or older people that pass the exams later so they can have a job that needs it. OWLs are given by the Wizarding Examination Authority, not by Hogwarts. That's an international committee so even the Ministry couldn't try to stop us from taking the OWLs at the end of the year!" Said Hermione, now excited.

"So... We could just quit DADA and pass the OWLs at the end of the year? Great!" Said Ron.

All three of them were especially excited that night and couldn't sleep well. Hermione convinced them to attend at least the next class on Monday as they had to see that with McGonagall, but the day after that they would be able to see her and be done with it. Hermione thought they might even have a lot of student follow their lead. Oh how right she was!

"So... Only a few hm?" Asked Harry to Hermione. The bookworm was fidgeting in her chair next to him, knowing perfectly how many people really answered to their invitation.

Harry didn't count, but there was at leas half of the fifth year which included everybody from Gryffindor, most from Hufflepuff, a few Ravenclaw, and two Slytherins – those two surprised him the most. But that was only the fifth years. There was a bunch of third and fourth year but none younger than that, and also a few from sixth and seventh year. Most of them were still Gryffindors but there again he could see three Slytherins from third year. All in all, there was a lot of people.

"You, Slytherins." Started Ron with a bit of venom in his voice. "Why are you here?"

"I invited them. At least the two older. I got charms and DADA with them and they are nice, got to know the black haired one better in detention also." Said Jeff.

"We don't want any snakes." Blurted Ron but was slapped in the back of his head by Hermione. "What was that?"

"Stop judging people so easily, you don't know them." She answered.

"Ron, I consider you a friend but if you kick them out, I'm out too." Said Jeff sternly.

"Nobody's gonna be kicked out unless they deserve it, and right now, they don't." Cut Harry. He saw Ron deflating a bit and knew he still wasn't happy about it but he would have to tolerate it. He was still a bit wary of the Slytherins himself but he trusted Jeff and he trusted them, that was enough. "Still, I wonder about the three youngest, you invited them?"

The question was directed to the two Slytherins. Daphne didn't seem to be going to answer so Tracey did. "Astoria is Daphne's sister, the two other girls are fine too, friends of the mini-Ice Queen. Don't worry, none of us are Death Eater's kids."

This time it was Fred and George that spoke. "Lady Ice Queen..." Started one.

"Its a pleasure to meet you in a more friendly manner than the last time." Finished the other. Both took one of her had and kissed it in an exaggerated gentleman manner.

"I would say the Engorgement charm you cast on our lips when we tried to talk to you was unbelievable."

"Really, it was. The weight forced us to literally kiss the floor you walked on, an honor really if anything is."

She simply arced her eyebrows while Tracey was laughing like mad. In the end, Daphne waved them away a lot more politely than the twins were expecting. Harry himself couldn't resist to the funny part of it and snickered a bit. Ron was fuming but everybody ignored him.

"Well, back to the subject at hand." Hermione had slipped a paper on the desk between them and the others before continuing after a nod from Jeff that had cast a silence charm to have the room sound proof. "We're all here because we think Umbridge class is a joke. We need a real Defense Against Dark Arts class with real spellwork practice and battle tactics thought by a real teacher. Not only for our OWLs or NEWTs, but also for the fact that V-Voldemort is back."

Almost every one shuddered at the name but in the end, Zacharia Smith was the first to voice his thoughts. "How are you so sure? All we have is HIS word for it." The blond Hufflepuff pointed to Harry while saying that. "Maybe if we knew what really happened last year..."

"Stop. I see." Said Harry while rising and walking to the door. "All those that are here only hoping I'd tell you a good story, take the door, I'm not here for that."

At that, no one moved, but Harry could see a few person pondering on the choice. In the end, Susan bones ended the dilemma. "My aunt, Amelia Bones, told me you could do a Patronus, a fully corporal one. Is that true?"

"How did she know that?" Asked the concerned.

"She is the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. She was at your hearing this summer." The red head girl stated.

Harry remembered the person now. She was about Sirius's age, well conserved woman with a stern look but she was the quickest to vote in his favor, she was also impressed when he confirmed he could do a Patronus. Daphne, when she learned that Susan's aunt was the head of the DMLE had a whole other thing in mind than Patronuses and Philosopher stones, the subject being the next brought up. The other were still questioning about Harry's rumored exploits, mainly condensed in what happened in the tournament but carefully avoiding the third task and she couldn't help but let a small giggle escape when it derived a bit and she learned that Moaning Myrtle had a crush on Harry. She would have been jealous and felt threatened if it wasn't a ghost and if she wasn't annoying like hell.

"Ok, ok. Enough about me." Said Harry that was becoming a bit flustered. "As for all these exploits I made, most of them I simply had luck or was helped. Its not pretty, its not fun, its certainly not glorious. Mostly, its frightening like hell. You don't have more than a split second to act and what you chose to do might determine if you live or die. You don't have time to think about what spell to use, you shoot and that's it."

"That's right." Approved Jeff. "Lets not forget than more often than not, lives of others are at stakes too. I know it, my fast acting saved a few girls in America. And before you ask, no, I didn't fight one of the guy for an hour long, that's bullshit."

That got a few laughs from the people around and some more questions were asked. In the end, the meeting was fun but it had to end.

"Ok guys, here's the thing we have to do." Said Hermione. First, before we continue further, I want everybody to sign that parchment. By doing so, you swear to never speak of these meetings to anybody. If you think somebody would be a good addition, come see me and I'll arrange it.

"Why don't we make a Fidelius Charm?" Asked Daphne. "That way, nobody but Harry will be able to speak even under Veritaserum."

"That would be great but I can't do that spell, do you?" Asked Hermione.

"No, it is very complex but we could work on it together if you want?" Daphne proposed. At that, Hermione smiled and immediately approved. Harry had a feeling they would end up good friends over time, contrary to Ron who seemed to darken every time the Slytherins talked.

"Alright, we'll see about that later. For now, please sign this anyway, it will at least give us a list of everybody that is a member." Said Harry before the two girls could elaborate on their plans.

As a surprise for most but not for Tracey or Astoria, Daphne was the first one to sign, the others were too reluctant to do it, but if a Slytherin wasn't afraid to sign the parchment, there couldn't be a reason for them to be, was it?

"Good." Concluded Hermione. "We'll contact you with the first reunion's date and location, should be next week probably. Meanwhile, try to come up with good places to do practice privately and report them to me. Somewhere that won't look suspicious if a lot of student pass by there but not somewhere too obvious like here. I know its not breaking the rules to make a study group, but I don't want to give Umbridge a reason to make a rule against it. Any other questions?" When no one spoke, she dismissed them and almost everybody left gradually so not to catch attention. Harry watched them go with the Marauder's map and was relieved that there was no teacher or student on the fourth floor at all except them.

"Talking about Umbridge." Said Daphne before turning to the redheaded girl before she left, leaving only her, Tracey, Jeff and the trio with girl in the room that was still soundproof. "Susan Bones, right?"

"Er... Yes?" The Hufflepuff said stopping her movement.

"Would your aunt make an inspection of Umbridge if you gave her a reason to?" Asked the Slytherin.

"Yes, if she is doing something illegal. You know of something?" The young Bones inquired.

"Me no. But, call it instinct, a feeling or simply the fact I'm a Slytherin, but I'm sure she hide some dirt we could expose." Said Daphne.

"How about a Blood Quill?" Everybody turned toward Hermion when she spoke. Harry looked furious while Daphne and Tracey had a mixture of a horrified look and a mischievous smile and Susan had big eyes.

"Do you have proof?" She asked eagerly.

Hermione turned toward Harry and before he could flee she gripped his right hand before showing it to Susan who's eyes bulged even more.

"Damn that woman!" Said Tracey. She turned to look at Daphne who was looking at the scarred hand with an anger that shattered her Ice Queen mask to shreds.

Susan looked closer and frowned. "That is indeed pointing toward a Blood Quill, but not enough of a proof. The best would be to have a way so my aunt could see the quill in use. Of course if Umbridge could admit it herself it would be good also."

His anger toward Hermione for showing his scar dulled a bit more, Harry started to see where it was going and was now a bit more pleased of the situation. "Can't your aunt just use Veritaserum on me or even better, on her?"

"Its controlled, Harry. A testimony on Veritaserum that wasn't approved by the Wizenmagot will be ignored." Susan countered. "We need to give enough evidence to my aunt so she can get the Wizenmagot to approve the use of a Veritaserum interrogation. Though uncovering a corruption in the government will probably be stopped by Fudge. My aunt think he's an idiot and is trying since last year to find some dirt on him so she can discredit him. If you can get proof that he is cautioning the use of that quill, my aunt might kiss you."

"Ehm, she's pretty for her age but too old for me, a thanks will be enough." Said Harry with a little laugh, accompanied by the rest around him.

Ron, who didn't speak since the confrontation about the Slytherins, finally took part to the conversation. "Can't she just check his memory in a Pensive?"

"Wouldn't be a bad idea, I know they have one in the department of mysteries because my father works there." Susan now looked thoughtful and seemed to be pondering the idea. "I'll speak about that to her. Don't worry, she wont bust anything, she'll find it too much appealing to be taken lightly and to rush it. She was already enraged enough when she learned that she was going to teach here, her using a blood quill would be the cherry on the sunday."

"Good idea Weasley." Said Daphne. The praise though didn't seem to reach him because he ignored her. The eldest Greengrass knew she would have to work hard to gain trust from them, especially from Ron.

After a few more words and a promise from Susan to bring more information from her aunt, they all left. Ron was the first to leave and Daphne took her chance – with the help of a little push from Tracey.

"Harry can you stay a minute?" She told, now becoming really nervous. Hermione also saw the nervousness and had a knowing smile on her face. While she was still wary of the Ice Queen, she had seen enough to know that was mainly a persona and knew that Harry could take care of himself. She mouthed to Harry that she would distract Ron and left, soon followed by Tracey who was pulling a slightly confused Jeffrey. He might have been popular with the girls, he still couldn't see something as obvious as what Daphne was showing. Anyway, its not like Harry was better at it. In fact, yes, he at least saw she was nervous but only had it half right for the reason.

"Don't worry. I might have been a little wary of you at first but with the Fidelius suggestion and your apparent will to get Umbridge in trouble, I think I can trust you." Said Harry to ease her nervousness. It did work. Yes, because she was indeed a bit nervous about it, but it was mainly because she thought she was obvious like hell about the fact she liked him, which he proved to still be clueless.

"T-thanks... Ehm, I wondered if you'd like to spend some time with me outside the meetings for the study-group. I feel like we could... become good friends. After we get to know each other more of course, which is the reason I ask you this." Daphne was stammering a bit but not enough for Harry to think anything of it.

Harry was surprised by the request. He did think she seemed nice, even with that cold attitude, but he never thought about really becoming friend with her. He would be lying if he said she didn't attract him. There was a reason she needed to be cold and Harry was a hormonal teenager. Oh yes he was attracted to Cho, but he forgot about her a bit too fast when she went to the Yule Ball with Cedric. Shaking the thought off his head and also wondering why he was already picturing the black haired girl's hand in his, he decided to simply answer and see where it goes.

"Yeah, no problem. It'll be weird for the others to see us talking together I suppose. Not that I mind really." Harry said. He didn't mind the talks behind his back, he was used to it.

"In fact, I think its better to hide our rel... I mean friendship from the others, mainly those on my house like Malfoy. We could meet in secret somewhere after class?" She proposed, now blushing madly. This though didn't went unnoticed by the raven haired boy. He wouldn't have guessed the real reason, but he knew that it meant she was embarrassed. In the end he concluded that it was because it almost sounded like a date.

"It almost sound like a date. Hehe." Said Harry with a laugh. Daphne also had a nervous laugh while her blush went deeper. Harry seemed to be thinking a bit before answering. "But yeah, I'd like that. I'll have to start practicing the spells I'll show you in the meetings anyway, you could help, Hermione prepared a list of them to learn. Do you mind if she comes?"

"Oh er... no, not at all." Daphne was a pretty disappointed but didn't say anything. It was still a good start and after thinking about it, she thought she would be more natural if they weren't alone. "I could bring Tracey too, and I think Jeffrey would be useful, he really is good in charms."

"I'd bring Ron, but I doubt he'll want to... Not to upset you but he doesn't trust any Slytherins." Said Harry.

"Don't worry, I understand, I'll have to earn his trust. With people like Malfoy, Pansy and most of the house in fact, its normal to have trust issues toward us. Just so you know, I'm not friend with any of them. In fact, other that Tracey and my sister, I don't speak a lot to the others in my house. My sister's friends are ok I guess, they escaped Malfoy's brainwash but they're my sister's friends, not mine. They're not numerous anyway."

"Don't worry about it. As you said, we'll learn enough about each other over the next few weeks. So tomorrow, here at the same time is good?" Harry asked.

Daphne had Astrology that evening and she was almost planning to skip it to stay with him, but in the end decided against it. "Yeah, but I have astronomy at night so I'll have to go early."

"That's ok. So see you tomorrow." Said Harry, waving at her while he exited the classroom.

"See you tomorrow..." Returned Daphne, a warm smile and a wave accompanying her words. She stayed in the classroom for about thirty seconds more before squealing loudly and hoping the silence charm was still there because the whole school would have heard it. Blushing a bit, she calmed herself and waited for the blood to recede back in place. Once she was calmed, she put on her Ice Queen mask and strode away to the Slytherin's dungeon. She didn't cross anybody but if somebody took the time to look, they would have seen that she seemed to be walking on a cloud.


	4. Chapter 4

Contrary to what a lot of people would have thought, Ginny wasn't happy with her life at the moment. She was often seen in the arms of Michael Corner from fifth year in Ravenclaw, but in reality, it was more like it was him taking her in his arms than her settling herself there. She liked him, she was sure. He was funny and easygoing, but he was a know-it-all like Hermione who even if she was her friend, was still a bit annoying about that fact. As for Michael, he even sometimes knew less than even her fourth year self, being more than a little annoying at those times because he never conceded.

He wasn't bad looking, but not that handsome. Also, they couldn't even talk about one of the major point in her head they had in common, Quidditch, because it stopped to the sport itself. She was a Gryffindor to the end while he was a hardcore Ravenclaw. She supported the Holyhead Harpies, he was supporting the Tutshill Tornados. She wished to play Chaser, he wanted to play Seeker and couldn't even agree to the best broom brand. In the end, they ended up arguing more than anything else.

So why was she with him? Easy question : Distraction.

Yeah, as bad as it sounded, she never really had forgotten Harry, but Hermione gave her good advise and now that she looked elsewhere, now that she had something to distract herself from the Golden-Boy, she was more natural around him and felt like she could bond with him at least a bit. She didn't feel like she had a chance anymore really. Oh she knew people said she was pretty, she herself thought she had a good figure for her age, a bit small but growing up early at the good places. No, it wasn't about that. The look he was giving her was the same her brothers gave her, the same look he gave toward Hermione! The more she was speaking with him, the more she could feel the fraternal attitude he had toward her.

Hermione knew, of course. She gradually changed her speech from "be more natural and he'll eventually see you like you really are" to "be more natural and you'll feel better about yourself, you might even find out he wasn't the one for you!"

She cried for it. She still loved him and in her heart, she still felt like he was the one for her. So she kept the only thing that could distract her from thinking about him : Michael Corner. She hated to use him like that, she felt bad for it, but as much as she was Gryffindor in her heart, some part of her was Slytherin because she felt selfish and didn't care who she hurt as long as she wouldn't be hurting anymore.

"Hey Gin!" Exclaimed Michael when she went to sit with him on breakfast. He looked around a bit and seeing they were out of earshot of anybody not concerned asked the question that burned him and a few people since last week's meeting. "Did Hermione told you when the meeting would be?"

"No, she didn't. I'll tell you when I hear it I promise, but stop asking every time we see each others, okay?" She answered before starting to eat. One week had gone by and they still didn't had any words on the next meeting for the study-group other than Hermione telling her a few more people joined them and signed the parchment. She had seen Harry coming back later every night from what she learned to be practicing spells to teach them. She thought maybe he wasn't ready, it was something big he had to do.

On the Gryffindor table, every fifth year were laughing loudly along with a few from other years.

"Yeah, it was too tempting. It WAS worth the one hundred points I had my house lose for it even if its still extreme. Sorry again about it." Said Harry, but nobody seemed to care. Its not like they were in the course anymore anyway with Slytherin licking Umbridge boots as well as Snape favoring his house. "When I heard that every single fifth year other than most Slytherins and I thing one or two Ravenclaw had dropped the class through last week, I HAD to do it..."

_It was too good. Harry knew from what people told him that there was not a single person in his class that didn't dropped the course. After they did it, the word had spread like wild fire and everybody seemed to agree to the fact it would be funnier to leave the DADA teacher in the dark about it._

_Hermione tried to stop him from doing what he intended to do, but his eyes had a mischievous glint that reminded her both the twins and Tracey's eyes. Striding forward to the classroom that he knew would be empty, he reflected on his little talk with McGonagall last week._

_She seemed surprised, mainly because it was Hermione that really turned the idea to a concrete goal, but in the end, they saw her smile in a way they never thought they would see. Oh she did smile to them often, but it was a first to see a happy malevolent smile draw itself gradually on her strict face. She played her role and said she was sorry to know they felt the need to search for education somewhere else, but had their schedule magically modified, creating them an empty period. After that, she mentioned that she wouldn't reveal it to Umbridge, that she would see it herself at her next class._

_Harry smiled at the memory and entered the empty classroom and selected the center-most desk to settle himself behind then waited. After a few minutes, he heard a feint gasp and had to control himself to not turn around and laugh madly at what he guessed would be the most shocked face he'd ever seen on the toad's face. No, he mustn't turn around and look, her face would be priceless when he dropped the bomb._

_He waited as he heard her walk to the side of his desk and looked angrily at him._

"_Well?" She asked. "What is the meaning of this? You fed them all with your filthy lies and had them skip the class, is that it?"_

"_No madam, It seem like everyone decided that Defense Against Dark Arts was not a necessary class as there is obviously no Dark Arts to defend against." Said Harry casually. Nobody, not even Umbridge, could miss the arrogance and the sarcasm in his words. Harry had to restrain himself not to burst with laughter because her face was indeed very priceless, but he wasn't finished. "I think the same way in fact with slight differences that I don't think is needed to be told, both of us knowing what they are. But I thought I should at least come to tell you directly that I had the Defense class removed from my schedule. I might still try to pass my OWL in it, as I was pretty advanced anyway and have already finished the book you would have us read all year."_

"_Why you little! Don't think that I'll permit you to even think about getting your OWL in Defense Against Dark Arts, I know you set all this up!" Shouted Umbridge._

"_Sorry to disappoint you, but the Wizarding Examination Authority is not affiliated to the Ministry, so you won't be able to stop me even if I need to go to abroad to pass all my OWLs. As for setting this up, I think you did it yourself by convincing everyone I was telling lies. I must say congratulation, I wanted to be the one to tell you what a good job you did of it. Now I'll be out, as you probably have an other class to evaluate, this period being free now. I wish you a great day Mrs Umbridge."_

_Umbridge didn't miss the fact he didn't used the Professor title. Harry thought that anyway, she didn't deserved it as to be a professor, you need to be teaching something, which she wasn't. Umbridge on her side became enraged by it and yelled at him that he had his house lose one hundred points for being insolent and irrespective, but couldn't put him in detention as she wasn't his teacher. Of course, that would change with one of the next Educational Decree, but for now he was safe._

Soon, the story reached almost every ears in the great hall. Looking over to the Slytherin table, Harry could see Daphne struggle to keep her face straight as Tracey was vividly telling a story to her. He didn't know how, but Harry was certain it was the story of his conversation with Umbridge the preceding day. His view though was shadowed by McGonagall and he had to gulp while looking up to her.

"Mr. Potter. It came to my attention that you had a conversation with Professor Umbridge yesterday." Said the stern looking professor loud enough to have everyone at the table and around it hearing everything.

"Y-Yes, Professor McGonagall." Said Harry.

"I see. Mr. Potter, it also came to my ears that Peeves tried to drop a desk on your head a bit later after that, but that you transfigured it into a pillow before it hit you, is that right?" She asked, still looking like she was lecturing him.

"Ehm... Yes? I do that all the time, about everyone that know how do it." Harry answered. He knew she simply used that as an excuse, that the real reason she was talking to him was about the fact he got Umbridge totally insane the day before.

"Good, that is a good use of Transfiguration. I think fifty points to Gryffindor are earned for this. Continue the good work, Mr. Potter." At that, Professor McGonagall winked at him and went back to the teacher's table.

Soon after, it was Flitwick that came and gave him twenty points for using a accio to get a cupcake from a serving plate a few seats to his right. He was then followed by Professor Sprout that gave him an other twenty points because the way he used his knife to cut an orange was also the best way to cut the fruit of a certain plant they never heard before so to keep most of the juice. And in the the end, astronomy professor Sinistra gave him twenty points because the bits of eggs remaining in his plate were placed just like the Orion constellation. Harry was certain this wasn't a coincidence and that Sinistra magicaly moved the eggs bits while walking toward him.

The Gryffindor table was speechless for a few minutes before erupting in cheers. In the end, Harry gained ten points to his house and regardless of the reasons they improvised, he knew that the real reason was because he showed Umbridge a piece of her own medicine. Even Hermione in the end said that it was indeed brilliant.

"Thanks Hermione. Oh by the way, I found the perfect place for you know what." Said Harry.

"Oh yeah? What is it?" Asked Ron, intrigued.

"I'll show you at break after charms. I'll bring my two friends too as its thanks to them I found it." Said Harry, looking at Ron while saying it and waiting for what he knew would come, all three of them knew which two friends he was talking about.

"Oh, I can't at break, I... Promised... Dean a rematch at chess." Claimed the redhead, hoping no more questions would come and pleading the black boy to simply agree.

"No Ron, not this time. I don't know why you keep bringing me up when you don't want to go somewhere with Harry and I don't care, but you should come clean to him." Countered Dean, before walking away, leaving the trio alone at their part of table.

"Its ok Ron. I don't want to force you to like them, I'm already pleased that you aren't trying to keep me away for them." Said Harry after seeing there wasn't anybody near anymore to hear the conversation. His friendship with the two Slytherins was still a secret from anybody except Ron, Hermione and Jeff.

"I am. I mean, I'm trying to keep you away from them in a way, not trusting them and not hiding it. I know you'll come around and see that I'm right about them when I say you can't trust them. I'm sure they were set up by Malfoy to... whatever it is he want them to do." Said Ron.

"I don't think so Ron. The more time I pass with them, the more I find them nice, especially Daphne who you seem to hate the most." Harry wasn't liking the direction the discussion was going, but it had to be said.

"She's the daughter of the Greengrass family, they were with You-Know-Who during the war! How can you be so blind? Its obvious she will sell you to him if she can!" Ron had sincere eyes, evident that he was absolutely sure of what he was saying.

"She told me. She also told me how much she hate her father for it, that if she could she'd turn him over to the government to get him in Azkaban." Harry was now starting to get angry, Hermione looking split between her two best friends.

"She's lying, I'm certain of it." Said Ron with obvious conviction.

"You sound like Umbridge." Said Harry, now really angry. "Fine, don't trust her. I do. I hope that YOU come around and see that I am right."

"Like that could ever happen. I'll never trust any snakes." Said Ron, crossing his arms as a sign that he wouldn't budge from his opinion.

Harry looked at him, his anger fading a bit but being simply replaced by sadness. "Then I'm sorry. You've been my best friend, but I don't know if I'll be able to feel that way toward you much longer if you're not able to open your mind more."

Ron was shocked while Hermione put a hand in front of her mouth, still saying nothing but tears welling up in her eyes. "I... I see..." It took a long time after that, a few minutes where neither of them would look at the other but, in the end Ron deflated and seemed to make a resolve for himself. He remembered how much of a prick he had been last year about Harry becoming a champion and how he felt bad about not trusting his friend. He saw that he was making the same mistake again. He got up and walked on Harry's other side. When his friend looked up, he sighted, a sing that he resigned to something, and finaly spoke. "For our friendship Harry, I'll try to tolerate it. I know you can watch for yourself so I'll keep trusting you, I trust you, but I still don't trust them."

Harry smiled, Hermione also left a relieved sigh at hearing those words. They were both a bit surprised that Ron would come around as quickly as he did, thinking he was probably growing up other than in height and they were both thankful of that. "Thanks Ron. I'm sorry for putting you through this. On my part, I promise I'll be extra careful when dealing with them. That's ok with you?"

After a nod from Ron, the Trio got up and the two boys shook hands in a very brotherly way to seal the deal. Hermione was happy to see this and was smiling widely before urging them to the charm class.

Daphne was standing on the seventh floor in front of a tapestry of a sorcerer trying to show Troll how to dance the ballet. She was thinking on how much that week had been good. Her time with Harry was really fun and they learned a lot. Jeff was good help as he was very good at charms in general, but nobody could deny the fact Harry was also pretty good, better even when it touched defense or offense, learning very fast. But that wasn't all they did. They talked a lot, mostly casual stuff or stuff related to what they were doing or school. Last Friday though, Hermione had faked a headache, Tracey said she had an essay on charms to finish and dragged Jeff with her, leaving the two raven haired teens alone for the evening. They trained a bit but without the input of Jeff or the pressure from Hermione, they soon dropped it and just sat on cushions they conjured, a charm they actually learned in one of these training session. Harry opened up a bit more on himself and Daphne had also started to talk of her life up to now. She found that Harry was a very good listener and she felt good just talking to him about everything and nothing.

Her thoughts were interrupted by her blond friend that snorted in a very unladylike way, trying to stop herself from laughing and failing badly. Tracy had a laughing fit while looking at the absurd the tapestry, but Daphne knew it was just an excuse, she was in fact laughing at Daphne for what she had almost done a bit before but learning it only just a few minutes ago.

While going to their class, Daphne felt a hand over her robe and, without thinking at all, she hexed the boy that was closest to them at the moment which just happened to be Nott. What she hit him with, Daphne didn't tell but it had the effect of creating painful boils on his manhood from what they heard later on. The thing is, they didn't know before the end of their class that Nott probably never even tried to put his hands on her at all, because what she felt was in fact Harry leaving a paper note in her pocket. The pocket wasn't even close to a private place, but when she's in her Ice Queen persona, everywhere on her body is private to everyone except maybe Tracey and Astoria that can hope to survive touching her arm or shoulder... Tracey had a doubt Harry had a bit more place he could reach without being hexed to the next generation but never challenged her on it. It was in fact common knowledge in the school that Daphne would hex anyone that tried to touch her without her approval. That fact rapidly became known as the Frost Bite of the Ice Queen, something she didn't discourage.

All that to say, Nott was in the infirmary, everybody saying he was Frost-Bitten, and all Daphne received was a ten point loss to Slytherin – like she cared – and the satisfaction of hexing Nott's bits, not minding the fact he was innocent at all. Tracey found the situation hilarious, not only for the boy's misfortune, but because Daphne said she didn't even see it was Nott before the spell left her wand and hit his groin. That meant if Harry had been a tad bit slower, she'd have hexed him instead.

"Good, you're there." Said Harry while rounding a corner with Jeff and Hermione. Looking at the Greengrass daughter, he took on an exaggerate nervous look. "Is it safe to approach you?"

Daphne was able to smile at the little jab and answered. "As long as you don't plan on giving me an other note, I don't think Nott will be there to take the spell for you again."

"Poor bloke... May his descendant, if he can still have any, live without complications..." Said Jeff with a false sad tone.

"Well, he did tried once in third year to cope a feel on me." Said Tracey. "So I'm happy he was there!"

"Oh. Then he deserved it." Said the American with a complete change of attitude before turning toward Harry. "So? What are we doing here?"

"Right." Started Harry before walking in front of the wall while talking. "So I had Daphne and Tracey come because they gave me the idea to ask Dobby for a room to train, as House Elves do know the castle more than anybody. I brought Hermione because she's the head of all of that and I brought Jeff because... In fact, how come you're here?"

Jeff shrugged before answering. "Dunno. Got out of History of Magic and was pretty drowsy, you know, Binns. I got lost after a staircase moved so I wandered a bit. In the end I saw you and Hermy climbing the stairs and I followed, caught up to you just before you checked your map to make sure there was nobody else around but you didn't seem to see me, or didn't care I was there, and here I am!" Hermione rolled her eyes at her nickname but didn't say anything.

"...Ok... I guess I'm already getting used to your presence." Shrugging, Harry started again to walk in front of the wall, looking a bit strange doing it. "Anyway! Dobby told me of the best place to practice, so let me present you..." While talking, a door started to appear much to the shock of those present except Harry. "... to the Room of Requirement!"

Opening the door, they found themselves in a room full of training equipments, books, dummies and even a few medieval weapons. Hermione rushed to the books while the others inspected the equipments.

"These books! Most of them aren't even available in the library!" Said the bookworm, eager to start reading them... in fact she already took three and was suddenly reading, sitting in a comfy chair they knew wasn't there a few seconds before.

"So? What do you think? For trying it a bit, I know this room can become anything you ask. I didn't experiment that much, but its still damn useful. The door disappear from the other side once somebody is in and you can't ask for an other room than the one which is already created. Dobby explained that much. Oh, and to tell the room what you need, you walk past the patch of wall the door is supposed to be three times while thinking on what you want." Explained Harry, immensely happy of the find. He planned on offering loads of socks to the little House Elf.

"It's amazing!" Said Daphne with excited nods of approval from the other. "That reminds me, Hermione, or Jeff in fact."

"Yeah?" She asked.

"Couldn't any of you, or both at once I guess, ask Flitwick about the Fidelius charm? You're both his favorites and we would need more information on it..." Said Daphne. Before any of the two could answer, a book appeared from thin air and dropped in front of the Slytherin. Seeing the cover mentioning "Advenced practical Charms and their theories" she quickly took it and looked at the table of content then flipped almost to the end of the book. "Ehm... Never mind... It's very clearly explained how it work and how to perform it in here. Just like I asked..."

Every one saw Daphne begin to sit where there was no chair before one appeared just the moment she would have lost balance and dropped to the floor. Looking between her and Hermione, both now reading a book with the utmost concentration, Harry couldn't help but roll his eyes before breaking the silence. "Well, that's great and all, but the break is almost finished and we got Transfiguration."

"While I got potions." Added Jeff. "Then I'll be going, I'm already barely on time as it is."

Jeff started to walk toward the door before stopping and turning around. "Hey I just thought of something... Do you think it can give us a shortcut to somewhere in the castle? Like the Dungeons?" And just like that, a portrait appeared on one of the walls. They all remembered that specific portrait as it was one that was just in front of the potion class. The dark hooded man in it was sitting with his back to them and they could see that the portrait was a bit different in the fact the pose situated them behind him while normally they were facing him when in the dungeons. "I think I got my answer..."

Approaching, they saw the man almost jump of surprise from hearing something behind him and seemed intrigued by the room he saw just now. "What the..." He started before alternating watching from one side to the other. Jeff immediately understood and walked to the painting before pushing it a bit. It opened like a door and everybody could see the dungeon before them.

"Thanks Hogwarts!" Said Jeff before waving and passing the hole, closing the painting at the same time. The portrait faded away and the remaining people in the room were totally stunned.

"That is so... Wicked!" Said Tracey with excitement.

"Yeah, really!" Confirmed Harry with a beaming smile. He closed his eyes, concentrating, until a portrait appeared again, this time one in the Transfiguration corridor. "Well, I think we should get to Transfiguration, don't you think?"

A few days later, the group found themselves in the Room of Requirement again, this time accompanied by all of the study-group. Everybody was in awe at the room and a few requested to try it in different ways, but Hermione brought everyone back to order, saying they would be able to try it later.

"Ok, we all know why we are here. First, everyone take one of these. They are fake galeons with a serial number on the side. The number will change to what is shown on the master one. Harry, having the master galeon, will set the next meeting date on it to replace the serial number and the galeon will warm so you know it was updated." Said Hermione.

"That's great Hermione! That's NEWT level charmwork!" Said one of the Weasley twin.

"You can thank Ron, he gave me the idea when I discussed with him silent communication method, I just had to find a charm for it and this room provided me with just the perfect book." She continued while Ron smiled at the praise he got from most of the people around. "Anyway, that way, nobody will think of anything other than it being some money that you got for whatever reason you think of."

Everybody approved of the idea but this time they were brought back to silence by Daphne that walked next to the bushy haired Gryffindor. "Next issue, will be the application of the Fidelius charm so that the secret can't leave the place. Not everybody will be able to be there at every meetings so as everybody is currently present, now is the best time to do it. We'll apply it two times. Once on the room itself, Harry will be the guardian as he is the one that discovered the room and once on the reason of our meetings, Hermione will be the guardian for that as it was her idea in the beginning."

"You can do the Fidelius charm?" Asked Cho Chang, looking surprised.

"Yes, since recently. I worked it out with Hermione over the previous days and even if it is complex, its not that hard to do. It need to be done by at least two person and everybody witnessing the application of the charm will be in on the secret, but not the secret keeper. Anybody that knew of the secret before but didn't witness the application of the charm will forget everything about it and won't be able to find it again unless the guardian reveal it to them. The one doing the charm can't be the guardian of the secret so that's why it can't be done alone. Also, the only one that can undo the charm is the secret keeper himself. The book I got from that room was very precise on its application so I'm confident on being able to perform it, Hermione too or anybody we teach it in fact." Daphne didn't miss the mischievous look the twins gave one an other and thought it would be good to keep an eye on them. "The only condition for it to work is that the person performing the spell need to have total trust of the one he chose as a guardian of the secret. But, if the person that become the guardian of the secret is also included in that secret, is the one to benefit from the Fidelius charm or is the one requesting its application, as right now with Harry and Hermione, he must be the one to have complete trust on the person performing the charm."

At that point, she lost most of the younger while the rest were simply stunned of learning how the spell work. Ron didn't say anything but thought it shouldn't be Daphne applying the charm as nobody could trust her, but he promised Harry to tolerate her and decided against voicing his concern.

The whole group witnessed Daphne apply the charm with Harry for the location of the room. Harry wondered if Dobby and the other house elves would forget about its existence and decided he would go to tell them first thing after the meeting. He felt sort of powerful to be the only one that can give the location of that room or even talk about its existence freely to anybody.

Once the charm was applied, Daphne continued. "Now, nobody will be able to talk about that room to anybody that don't know the secret, other that Harry of course. If you want somebody to learn of it, you will have to ask Harry to do it. I made it so you can say that a magic on the room doesn't allow you to give its location. You can't mention the Fidelius charm, but nothing stop you from telling that the magic is done by the room itself even if its not true. That's what I recommend to say if you're in a bind" She turned to Hermione but was stopped by her.

"Wait. Before we apply the charm, we need to find a name for our group so it's included in the charm." Said Hermione.

"What about the Defense Association?" Said Cho Chang. "We can call it D.A. For short."

"Not bad, I'll keep in mind unless we find better." Approved the Gryffindor girl before being swarmed by suggestions. Most of them were rubbish – and coming from the twins – but there was a few good ones, but none good enough.

"No, I think 'Umbridge Is An Ugly Pink Toad Group' isn't enough mean to her." Argued Fred.

"Yes, you're right... How about the 'Anti Pink-Monstrosity-That-Makes-Toad-Looks-Charming' ?" Proposed George.

They continued like this for a while, others joining in and Hermione wondered who proposed "The Swiss Cheese Addicts" before seeing Jeff's eyes sparkle while looking at a bowl of sliced swiss cheese that appeared from thin air. This brought a new theory to Hermione as she knew food can't be created or transfigured, one of the limit of magic. The only place the cheese could come from is the kitchen, so the room must be able to bring things from elsewhere in the castle. An other theory would be that anything they got came from somewhere in the castle and they were simply borrowing it from its original place. She would have to experiment, but she guessed there were limits to that, like she doubted they could request for a person to be brought in the room or request for an object that was used. Now that she thought about it, the chairs they got before were exact replicas of the ones in the Gryffindor tower and probably came from a storage room somewhere in the castle because she knew nobody claimed that a chair had disappeared from the common room. Oh god this room was exciting!

"How about the thing Umbridge and Fudge seem to be fearing the most? 'Dumbledore's Army' which also work with Cho's idea of D.A. for short." Proposed Ginny, earning a pleased smile from Michael Corner.

"Yeah... It got a meaning, a practical side and it do tell what we do in some way." Said Hermione. "Everybody is ok with Dumbledore's Army?"

After an unanimous 'Yes', Hermione nodded to Daphne to perform the charm now. A few minutes later, Hermione smiled and wrote on the parchment the name of their group that she pinned to the wall. She turned back to everyone and pointed to the parchment while looking from one person to an other.

"Welcome all to Dumbledore's Army. Lets the learning begin!"


	5. Chapter 5

October passed in a blur of stuff and things, mostly. A combination of training to stay in advance of the rest of their friends in the D.A., D.A. meetings, Quidditch practices, classes and a lot of homework made the month feel like a week, even if they claimed it looked like a full lifetime because of Umbridge.

The Hogsmeade weekend wasn't particularly eventful. They stacked on sweets from Honeydukes, a few Zonko's products they would have to hide from Filch when returning and drank a few Butterbeer at the Three Broomstick. They crossed Daphne and Tracey a few time, as they did her sister and her friends, but other than small glances and almost unnoticeable nods for greetings, they didn't interact at all, much the same as in school generally.

While Ron still refused to talk to them unless forced or necessary, he was coming good on his promise and tolerated them. He did renewed his concerns when he saw that Daphne in particular was becoming closer and closer to his best friend but Harry simply said he couldn't see why that was bad as the more he knew her, the more he felt she was genuinely nice and not a bad person at all. The redhead of course only felt sad about it but held his tongue.

Contrary to him, Hermione was getting along very well with Daphne who was the only one that really threatened her as best of their year in subjects other than charms and defense – real defense, not Umbridge defense. They were often in the Room of Requirement studying together and were both approached by others to help them with their essays.

Harry on his part was really starting to like Daphne over the few times they got alone – with a little help from their friends, mainly Tracey. He still saw a lot of the Ice Queen in her but didn't think it was all that bad. Even when she was her own self he still saw that the Ice Queen mask wasn't entirely false. She was used to be treated in some ways and Harry could see she wasn't at ease when people came too close to her except very few exceptions. Being in a house where she can't trust anybody other than a select few do that kind of things to somebody.

He was starting to have doubts toward her though. Not bad doubts, simply... a blush here, a glance there, a few awkward brush of their hands... He was starting to see that if she was cold and distant with others, he was the one with who she was the most comfortable aside from her sister and best friend.

Her? Liking him in that way? No way! As if it would be possible... could it? Yes, these where the kind of doubts he had. He didn't believe it was the case, but he was starting to consider it. He didn't know at first how he was feeling about it though, because he still had his little crush on the asian Ravenclaw, but was starting to doubt that as well. Did HE, himself, liked the Slytherin girl in that way? He was fifteen and was confused, what could be more normal?

He tried to speak to Hermione about it, in private, but it didn't turn well. Hermione would just smile at him knowingly and say that he already knew the answers to his questions. It wasn't before watching the black haired witch practice the confringo curse for a few whole minutes that he understood what she meant. Thinking about how good she looked, admiring her pretty face that while it looked hard and cold right now turned his legs to marshmallow when she smiled warmly at him or laughed at a joke or anecdote. It soon turned into thinking how gorgeous she was, not being able to resist taking a look at her very well developed figure with pretty curves where they needed to be, long legs and thin arms. She looked like a precious jewel that people take good care of. The fact they put more casual clothes when training or in D.A. meetings didn't help his hormonal teenage-self as they were much more form-fitting than wizard and witch robes.

"Harry..." Said Ron. "We need to speak."

Harry looked up from his potion book. He had been looking at the same word for a few minutes, lost in his thoughts. Ron looked nervous and he already knew what he wanted to talk about. "Spill it Ron, I think that conversation is long overdue..."

"Its hard Harry. I... I know I promised to tolerate them but..." The redhead looked around and saw that the others were not paying attention to them. Hermione was currently in the Room with Daphne, working on their history essay, so Ron felt a bit less bad about it because she always looked sad when the Slytherins's subject came. Gulping anyway to give him courage, he continued. "I can't help but notice how much she's getting close to you or even Hermione. If it was only like Hermione, it wouldn't be too bad but, I can see how you look at her. I have the feeling she's up to something and by starting to like her that way, its almost an invitation to get all the information she needs then deliver you to her father. We both know what are her father's allegiance... I just got that feeling that she's dangerous."

"You think she is manipulating me to get close to me?" Asked Harry. When Ron nodded, Harry sighed. "I don't think so, and even if its the case, I'm not sure that I care."

That had Ron stunned. "What do you mean you don't care that she's manipulating you?"

"I said that IF it was true, I don't think I would care, I still think you're just blinding yourself. She is making me feel good." At Ron's semi-disgusted semi-embarrassed look Harry rolled his eyes to his obsessed friend before precising his words. "Not that way, Ron. When we talk, I always come out of those conversations feeling better, like she lifted a weight I didn't even know was there. She looks cold on the outside, she act cold and distant, but that is a result from living with a father you hate and being in a house in which you feel like an outcast. On the inside thought, she's... a bit like me. Just wanting to be like the others but not able to."

"But that's the thing! What if its all an act?" Asked Ron with determination.

"What if it isn't?" Simply replied Harry. "Unless you have veritaserum in your pocket or you turns out to be able to read minds, I don't know of any way to be sure and even if you did, I'd feel bad using these methods. If she is acting, I'll find out in the end and deal with it. I'll hate her and tell you how much you were right and I live through it. But if she not acting and I push her back, I'll just miss the first thing in my life that makes me really happy. There are also thinks I can talk to her about but can't with you or Hermione."

"What? But you know we'll never judge you or anything!" Exclaimed the taller boy, looking more than a little hurt by that revelation.

"I know, but its the way she handle it." Explained Harry. "I do trust you, but there are things, personal things, that I know you'll simply tell me that its in the past and not to think about it while Hermione will over-sympathize and make me feel bad about telling her. Daphne, she different with that. She is more straightforward and frank in her comments, her insight is helpful, not just a temporary ease. Its like she's finding all the knots in me and untie them one after the other."

Ron now had a serious look in his eyes, one of those rare ones where he is really thinking about something and where he is at war with himself, trying to counter his natural instinctual way of thinking and taking in arguments to think more rationally. He knew Harry was right. They already tried talking about Harry's most personal subjects but the most they did was barely brush the topic before he would just tell Harry exactly that, to not thing about it and live in the present, not in the past. But Harry had eleven years of his life, his whole childhood and right now still the majority of his life being a mix of bad souvenirs and hurt feelings. Ron knew that Hermione wouldn't be good at it either, she'd say "Oh Harry! I'm so sorry that you had to live like that, how I wish I could have been your friend before!" but that would only make it worse. What friends they were, what a friend HE was! Not able to make his best friend feel better and worse, not able to approve of the only one that finally makes him feel happy? Right now, Ron felt like shit.

"I'm sorry... I... didn't saw it that way... O-of course you're right, me and Hermione would have reacted the exact way you said. I should be happy that you found somebody that make you feel better. I just wish I was a better friend..." He now had his head in his hand, his red hairs tangled between his fingers and just looking miserable.

"Don't say that. You are a good friend, just not the same way than her." Harry kept from telling her name as people were coming close to them but they both knew who they were talking about anyway. "I'm having fun with you. You're carefree, lazy and plainly idiot sometimes but I have the time of my life with you because you're funny, unpredictable and you do help me think about more fun things than my fucked up life. You're the brother I always wish I had."

"Brother?" Asked Ron, feeling better from Harry's speech.

"Well, I thought receiving the Weasley pull four years in a row made me an honorary member of the family, that's what the twins told me last year anyway." Said Harry with a grin.

"Oh that." Ron was now in a much better mood and felt like teasing a bit. "That's some old tradition that I didn't think you'd care very much, like listening to that hag on the radio every Christmas. Its a good break to pass Christmas here."

"I don't know who is that hag but I suddenly don't wish to know. But I do care for that old tradition, I'm honored to be included in that family tradition." Said Harry.

"Harry Weasley... It sounds weird." Continued Ron.

"It sure does. I think I can keep my last name anyway, don't you think?" Asked the young Potter.

"Only if you can give me a better challenge at chess than Dean, he suck at it." Finished Ron while summoning his chess game with a flick of his wand and a _"accio"_ and placing his pieces.

"You're on!" Shouted Harry and started placing his own.

"Let me show you how "unpredictable" and "plainly idiot" I am while I just smash your pathetic attempts to beat me." Added the tactic master with a false murderous look.

Laughing Harry couldn't help but poke his pride a bit more. "Oh! I forgot how much you're humble, certainly a major point to you."

"Shut up and play, you're already one move closer to defeat." Said Ron while waving his hand like he was pushing Harry's comment aside, one of his piece already moved.

Harry felt good to have his friend back. He knew they wouldn't always agree with one an other, he knew he wouldn't outright like Daphne and be supportive that much to him, but that didn't matter, as long as his friend was there and trusted in him, all was right in the better of the worlds.

* * *

><p>It was finally the day of the match between Gryffindor and Slytherin. Harry did miss Quidditch as he couldn't play last year and was on house arrest for the whole summer. All in all, he felt good at the moment. Recently thought, he started to have weird dreams of a door at the end of a long hallway. He didn't know why but he always felt disappointed when he woke up without being able to reach it. Somehow, he knew it was an important dream, but it remained a dream only. He even had the foolish idea of maybe trying to talk about it with Trelawney, but decided that he didn't needed her telling him that it was the door to his end and that he would die if he opened it.<p>

Shaking his thoughts away, he took his Firebolt and went for the pitch where Ron probably already was. He had to speak to him anyway, keep a promise to his captain. The new keeper was indeed there, alone and looking nauseous.

"Hey mate!" He said when Harry entered. It missed the joviality he had usually.

"Hey! Ready to kick some slytherin arse?" Asked the seeker.

"Of course! But there's one Slytherin arse you'd like be doing something else than kicking right?" Said Ron with a cheeky grin. He had started since their conversation to be more accepting of Daphne. He still didn't trust her fully but was much more able to tolerate her now that he knew how much she had a good effect on his friend. He soon started to even make a few little jabs toward Harry about it, never something mean but always a bit embarrassing.

"Don't say this, I'm still sure she doesn't like me like that, she's just a good friend for now and I don't need you to have me picture her bottom while I search for the snitch." Said Harry.

"Yeah yeah, as if you can even get it off your head at all since that time she had to bend so low to get back her wand after you conveniently disarmed her last meeting. Here I thought you always caught the wand of the other when using Expeliarmus." Added Ron.

Harry could already see the nervousness of his friend slip away, but it wasn't the good way because it would come back in force when it would be time. "Maybe, but now isn't the time to speak about that. How do you feel?"

"Like shit." Answered Ron, now back to his nervous self. "I can't understand how you manage."

"Easy. I just play for fun. Yes I want to win, but I just let the pressure flow off my back and play my best for me, not for the others. That way, I'm never nervous before a game because I know that even if we lose, I did my best." Advised Harry.

Ron tried to straighten up, shaking his head a bit before grinning. "That helps a bit I guess. But I think I just can't shake off the feeling I'll screw up everything."

"So?" Shrugged the seeker. "It happens. I certainly won't think worse of you even if you miss every single block, but I know you can do it, you were good in practice. Not at first but after a few, your confidence increased and in the end the practices were very productive and you were very good. You just need to trust in yourself. Don't think too much of it if you miss, you'll just miss more. Apply your own motto and forget the past, live in the present and just concentrate on the next shot and how to block it. Keeper is a position that need more instinct than the rest because the direction you need to go to block can change from a second to and other. That's why keeper is a tricky position and that's also why you're the best for it. You have good instinct and a very strategic mind, you'd be a much better captain than me that's for sure... as long as you work on your laziness."

"Tsss, you can't just compliment me, you always need to take a jab at me every time." Said Ron with a wide smile. "I guess my nervousness will go away by itself, but I feel much more confident now. Thanks Harry."

If Harry was worried that his speech wasn't enough, he was worried for nothing. At first Ron was still a bit nervous and very annoyed by the silly song that most slytherins were signing, making him miss his first two blocks, the second being very easy. But Harry saw him straighten up on his broom and after Malfoy circled him two times signing the damn verses, he had a mischievous grin on his face.

After that, he didn't miss a single block and even managed once, when Malfoy was close, to kick the Quaffle straight in the blond prat's head. He earned a torrent of applause from the crowd except Slytherins but that was enough for him to brighten and keep the red ball from entering any of the loops.

After a while, Harry snatched the snitch and the game ended with an overwhelming victory of 230 to 20. All hell broke loose on the ground though when Umbridge approached the Gryffindor team with a false angry look, her eyes sparkling with malice being visible even from the other end of the pitch. She was followed by Malfow who had a sick grin on his face and was holding his head negligently.

"I can say that it was probably the most violent and underhanded Quidditch match I ever saw." Said the High Inquisitor. At first, the Gryffindor thought she might be talking about the Slytherins taunting and borderline cheating tactics, but they were swiftly disillusioned. "The worst was when Mr. Weasley deliberately and without any reason sent the ball right into this poor boy's head, almost sending him off his broom!"

Everybody, even McGonagall raised an eyebrow at the accusation but were able to control their outbursts. It was like she never watched a Quidditch match and Ron's feat was nothing compared to most of the Slytherins attacks in danger potential.

"For this reason, with the authority I have within this school, I hereby ban Mr. Ronnald Weasley from even playing again Quidditch here. And don't think I'll stop here, the minister will hear of it and surely you'll be banned to ever ride a broom for your whole life." Said Umbridge, getting outraged shouts from everyone in the team and shocked stupor from Rom while the slytherins were simply laughing.

"As for you Mr. Potter. It came to my attention that this broom you have isn't just a replica but a real Firebolt, which is highly over your monetary means. Which mean I must confiscate it and verify it wasn't stolen, as I'm certain it was. Of course, while the investigation occurs, you are also banned from Quidditch this year!" She added with a malevolent smile she didn't even try to hide. She reached over and tried to snatch the broom but the seeker yanked it away.

"You can't! I received it as a gift two years ago!" Said Harry.

"And who would have gave that to you? The only friends you have are that muggleborn girl with parents not knowing anything of brooms and the Weasley who's whole house isn't even worth a inch of that broom." She asked with a defiant look.

Harry was now stuck. He couldn't tell her it was his godfather Sirius Black that purchased it for him, that would set him in an even worse situation and it would be even worse for Sirius. Not able to say anything, he wasn't even able to react when she took the broom, removed two hundred points to Gryffindor for the worst match she ever saw and promising hell would freeze before the Lion's team ever played again.

Angelina and the rest of the team were furious but certainly couldn't fight it. Harry tried to apologize to her but she stopped him, saying he wasn't at fault this time and that she would speak to Dumbledore about this. Harry doubted it would change anything but didn't tell her. He felt bad because he knew Umbridge was waiting for a chance to get back to him for having half the school drop her classes. She did received the authority to deliver detention for children not being her students but didn't get any chances as Harry kept a low profile now. That certainly was her way to get back at him.

Everybody returned to the castle and most of Gryffindor were shocked of the news, not being able to hear anything from up there. McGonagall did say she would make everything so he got back his broom and to have Gryffindor play again. She said that when they would track the serial number of the broom they would see that it was indeed paid in full and have to return it. Harry doubted it would be this easy but thanked her anyway.

The week after that was morose and frustrating. Malfoy would not waste any efforts to make them remember how Gryffindor wouldn't ever be allowed to play again and how Harry was proclaimed to be a poor idiot robber.

They were so frustrated about everything that happened that they didn't even saw that Hagrid was back until he was sitting at the teacher's table. That was at least a bit comforting and now having no more Quidditch practices, he had the time to go and get toothless on his half-giant friend's rock-cookies.

On a bright note, very bright one that time, it seemed that there had been headhunters in that match. Seems like their ex-captain, Oliver Wood who was now playing professional, mentioned to some contacts that there was very talented players in Hogwarts. In the end, no less than the whole team received letters a few weeks later from professional teams.

Ron was totally giddy as the Chudley Cannons were part of those. Its not that there was so much praise in the letters, they simply said that their playing style had lot of potential. Most of the letters mentioned how much they were impressed of the way they handled the underhanded ways of playing the other team was using, there was even one that was apologizing for it as he said he used to be captain of the Slytherin's team. For most, the letters mainly mentioned that they would keep an eye on future matches and their evolution through the years. That was the bad part about it, because they couldn't play anymore. Angelina said she'd make a team letter to answer all of them, explaining the situation and that she would keep them up to date if there was any evolution. She also sent a thank you letter to Oliver Wood for giving them that chance.

In the end, the D.A. meetings became much more frequent and a bit violent as the Gryffindor team used them as a way to let off steam. The twins were the worst because they were used to fight each other pretty badly already and ended up in the infirmary pretty rapidly. The rest were able to keep themselves from hurting others but they were much more radical than before. It took time, but they were able to return back to normal.

It wasn't before almost the end of November that they had a very good news, at least for some.

"RON!" It was Angelina that was shouting with two grinning Katie and Alicia with her at breakfast. "Read that!"

The redhead started to read out-loud to everybody around, becoming more and more excited.

_Hello Gryffindor Team_

_It pained me to learn that you were removed the privilege to play Quidditch after a match that was, to my professional eyes, flawless on your part. I particularly loved that same save from your Keeper, Ronnald Weasley, which got him that unjust punishment. The use of the Quaffle to disturb the adverse Seeker in that way was unprecedented and certainly a valid tactic to use._

_I don't think that such promising talents should be refrained from developing their potential and I intend on speaking in your favor to the Department of Game and Sport and have your team reinstated. We WILL see you play again even if for that we must move our training camp out of country so your Keeper can be authorized to fly again. But fear not, I am friend with most headhunters from Britain and our combined pressure will certainly force them to get you back on the field._

_With my best regards,_

_Hervey Stenson_

_Chudley Cannons Recruiter._

Ron was now speechless. In fact Harry had to continue reading in his place when the letter mentioned the redhead's name. They were all completely excited from the news and hoped it worked for the best. Harry had no illusion though that he would need more than the pressure from a few headhunters to get him back his broom and right to play. The government were already adamant to label him an attention craving liar, a thief would be a good addition to it. Harry grunted lowly, just loud enough for Ron hear it even if he didn't want to. He was getting frustrated and he didn't want to spoil the great moment Ron was having. Excusing himself, pretexting a stomach ache, Harry got up and left the great hall.

He didn't fool anyone but nobody tried to stop him, nobody knowing what to tell him. He had one destination in mind, the only one where he could vent up some frustration.

* * *

><p>"Well you did surprise a lot of people that day." Said Tracey to Daphne. They were both in the Room of Requirement practicing their transfiguration work they got that week. At the same time, they were discussing the looks she was getting since a certain D.A. meeting.<p>

"How so? I didn't feel like I was acting different." Said Daphne managing the transfiguration perfectly but continuing to practice anyway.

"When Harry gave you that tip on your wand movement, he had his hand on your back but didn't get Frost-Bitten. Those who saw it were indeed surprised." Explained Tracey with a smirk.

"I guess... I don't even remember the tip he gave me, I felt his hand on me and my face was burning. It took all my control not to blush like a preteen girl." Commented the dark haired girl, fidgeting with her wand and blushing a bit at the memory. "It was the first time he touched me at all since Nott's incident."

"Oh? He touched the Ice Queen before that?" Asked the blonde, not caring about practice anymore. Two chairs appeared, the same as their favorite in Slytherin's comon room.

"twice, or three times maybe, but just the arm or poking my shoulder to get my attention. That doesn't include the hand-brush we had a few times later, but that was me..." Answered the taller of the two girls.

"Huhuhu, did he notice?" Tracey was finding it pretty interesting.

"I don't know." Said Daphne. "He... doesn't seem to want our friendship to progress further. I mean, he already talk to me about stuff he doesn't talk to Hermione or even Ron, but I don't feel like he want to go further."

"How would you know?" Shrugged Tracey. "It IS the first boy you actively spend time with and sees like more than a simple wanker that doesn't even deserve a smile from you."

"I don't see boys like that!" Countered the Ice Queen. "... well, not all of them. I kind of like the twins. They never seem serious anyway when they try to approach me in a romantic way. They're funny. As for Harry, its just that he never even tried anything toward me to, I don't know, make things progress."

Tracey was now laughing. "That, my friend, is simply because he certainly doesn't even know how to do that. Don't think that because he's not already trying to get into your knickers that it necessarily mean he's not interested in you. Why don't YOU try and make the first move?"

If Daphne was going to say something, she never could because both girls were surprised by a voice coming from the door they were turning their back on. "Oh... I... Think I'll go in fact. Didn't know there was someone using that room."

Both girls had only just enough time to glimpse raven hairs with Gryffindor's colors and a flash of the rim of a pair of glasses. Tracey was the fastest though and in a moment she was at the door and casting a tripping hex, followed by a paralysis charm to his legs and arms. She then levitated him in the room and dropped him on the chair she was sitting before.

"Well, if it isn't Harry Potter listening on a girls-only conversation." Said Tracey. "What did you hear?"

"Ehm... I entered... ehm... at the end only..." Tried to tell Harry.

"Hey! The prophet is telling the truth! He is a liar." Said Tracey. Harry would have been offended but he was indeed lying right now and he knew Tracey was only saying that to make her point.

"Alright... I entered when Daphne said she was waiting for a boy to try and make things progress, but I didn't heard his name." Said Harry, a bit annoyed and even if he wouldn't say hit, sad to know Daphne had a love interest which, of course, absolutely couldn't be him, he wasn't that lucky. "I waited to maybe know who it was but when I heard you talk about 'being interested in her' I understood exactly what you were talking about, so I tried to excuse myself... Happy now?"

"Sooo... you didn't heard who we where talking about?" Said Tracey with a wicked smile. When Harry shook his head to say no, Tracey turned to Daphne who immediately understood what she was going to do. "Well, I won't be the one to tell, its your secret, Daphne."

"Ehm..." Started the pretty Slytherin, blushing a bit and horridly nervous. "I... have to... ehm... hand over my... ehm..."

"Don't try it, or I'll paralyze your legs too!" When Daphne seemed to resign herself, Tracey smiled widely before going through a portrait that led near the Great Hall, effectively leaving both of them alone.

Harry had completely forgotten what made him come here but now he hoped he hadn't felt that need. Both teenagers were silent and it was Harry that broke the silence. "Well, I don't know why she wants you to tell me but, who ever it is, I'm sure he'll be happy..."

"Harry..." Started Daphne, blushing and fidgeting like mad. "I... ehm... it was... you, we where talking about..."

Harry's eyes bulged and his stomach became filled with butterflies – when did he eat butterflies?. She was serious? They were talking about him? Him being Hogwarts Ice Queen's love interest? Him being THAT lucky? "M-m-me? Y-Your serious?" With a nod from her, Harry smiled but it dropped a bit almost immediately. "But... Why me?"

"I look at you that way since long in fact... Since fourth year if you want to know. Well, in third year I listened to you speak to your friends in Herbology and, well... I learned a lot about you and got a little crush starting... It was small at first, just a little tug when I looked at you or anything, but when I saw you in the Tournament... I was so worried! I couldn't lie to me after the Dragon and I started to really like you. Tracey didn't knew before that in fact."

"Oh... so you liked me because of me being a champion..." Harry looked away.

"NO!" Said Daphne, afraid she was screwing everything. "I liked you before that. Well, I must say I was a bit happy that you were chosen at first, but I soon saw that you weren't happy about it so, the only thing that remained was worry and hope that you'd get through without a problem..."

Harry brightened at that, but there was something else he had to verify. "Its not because of all these things I made or because of who I am, is it?"

"No. If it was, I would have liked you since first year. I really started to like you when I learned more about you in these Herbology classes. I thought I already told you before that I didn't care about your fame or anything..." Daphne's brown eyes were starting to shimmer a bit with growing tears when thinking that Harry didn't trust her.

"Sorry, yes you told me and I believe you, but... I just had to confirm... Its just, I never would have thought you were seeing me like that, that you liked me that way..." Said Harry, still too shocked to think properly.

"I do... Harry... but... I know you like Cho and..." Started the girl but she was cut by Harry.

"Cho?" Daphne was a bit surprised to be cut and from the surprised look he had from what she told him. "Yeah well, I guess I had a little crush at first because she was seeker like me, but I've forgotten her since long... since... well... Oh god its ridiculous to not be able to say it now! What a Gryffindor I make..."

Now Daphne was starting to gain hope and get excited. She was much less clueless than him and Tracey encouraging words were hitting. What was the reason he forgot Cho? She saw her dream boy straighten a bit on his chair and look at her in the eyes with determination.

"I've forgotten her since we started to hang out more. It was so easy also. I just had to accept the fact I liked you more than her and she was gone. It really was a small stupid crush, I can't even remember why I thought I liked her." Said the Gryffindor.

"So you..." Started Daphne, shocked and happy beyond belief.

"Yes, Daphne, I really like you..." Daphne's face lit up with the brightest smile Harry ever saw on her. It made him feel all smooth inside and just liking her more.

He was now blushing a bit too, not really embarrassed anymore but still nervous. The pause was short but he finally asked the words that were burning him.

"Would you... be my girlfriend?" He asked, highly nervous.

Daphne could only giggle a little at the question. "Of course, silly. I confessed to you before, I thought it was obvious."

"I just had to make sure... You know, that it wasn't all my imagination or that Tracey didn't hit me with a confusion charm too."

"No. No you're perfectly lucid and I really want you as my boyfriend." Said Daphne, a big smile on her face and forcing herself not to squeal from sheer happyness.

They remained quiet for a bit, just looking at the other for a while. It became a bit awkward before Harry's face started to contort a bit from some kind of effort. "Ehm... Right now I just want to kiss you, but I'm still paralyzed..."

"Oh!" Said Daphne, reddening at the suggestion but still sent the counter curse at him.

When Harry could finally move again, he got up and crossed the distance between the two chairs. He presented his right hand forward and helped her to get up. Slowly, he wrapped his other hand behind her back and got a little bit closer. It took only a fraction of a second for Daphne to get her arm around his back and pressing herself to him. Both their hearts were beating really fast while their lips closed the distance and met one an other.

Harry thought that if he had ever any doubts of his feelings, they were washed away right now. He felt complete with her in his arms and even if the kiss was a bit awkward at first, he still found it good. They parted lips a bit before laughing at each other for their obvious nervousness. Here they were, liking each other but still not really realizing it. They looked at each other a few more seconds before they kissed again, more sure of themselves and adding a bit more passion to it... and a bit more tongue.

"Say..." Asked Daphne. "We're Friday... so we both have a free day. Want to spend it with me here?"

"I thought it was obvious." Answered Harry before giving her a little peck to her lips. "Though we should get out and ask for an other room, so we're not disturbed if somebody want to come and use it."

"Sure, it'd be better." She added with a nod.

They both got out, waited for the door to disappear and Harry crossed the walls three times before a door appeared. When they entered, Harry went blank while Daphne looked at him with a shocked look. If he didn't looked as surprised as he was, she might have been a bit offended but he certainly didn't look like he was thinking about this.

"Harry... Why is there a bed?" She asked with a mischievous smile.

"Ehm, I... ehm... Didn't asked for it I swear!" Stammered Harry.

"I know, your face gave you away. That or you're more of a pervert than I thought." She said before he went and give himself a nervous breakdown. "What did you ask for?"

"I asked for a place to spend the day together in secret... I think the Room misinterpreted my thoughts." Explained the Gryffindor.

"Maybe the Room is able to read your subconscious?" Added the Slytherin with mischief, using a bit of Slytherin manipulation to see if the Golden-Boy had these kind of thoughts toward her. Seeing Harry's ears reddening like they were on fire, she guessed he really was a boy. "Don't worry, its very flattering in fact. But I'm certainly not ready for that."

"Don't worry, me neither." Said Harry. "Thank you for not taking it in a bad way."

"Its ok... Well, might as well make ourselves comfortable. A bed is good for snogging too..." Invited Daphne before tugging on his arm toward the furniture.

Harry was a bit taken aback by the choice of word but remembered who was her best friend. He smiled and followed her to pass what he thought would be the best day of his life... yet.


	6. Chapter 6

Malfoy was seething. He had received a letter from his father saying that a bunch of headhunters just arrived that afternoon and were making loads of pressure to have the Gryffindor team reinstated. He also implied that it was only a matter of time and to be ready to face the lions again. The only good news was that Potter was on a different level of interdiction so they couldn't do a single thing for him. Still, he was furious that his plan didn't work as well as he thought. At first he wanted to be targeted by the twins and be sent a few bludgers he would have barely avoided – voluntarily of course – and complained to Umbridge that they were playing dirty by aiming at him that much. In the end, the two beaters were not stupid enough to do it and were keeping the chasers away from the goals instead, probably having all faith in their foolish seeker. If Malfoy had a Firebolt, instead of Potter, he would certainly be the school's star player.

He had a partial victory anyway. Umbridge seemed adamant herself to get back at the Gryffindor Pretty-Boy and immediately asked all she could on him. Draco tried to play the good boy and gave all the info she asked but he soon understood what she was searching exactly and it was as simple as to tell her he wondered how he got a real Firebolt. Getting the Weasley a life-time ban had been a short-lived bonus over getting the Gryffindors out of the competition and getting justice on Potter.

While thinking though, he saw the entrance wall open to one of his most prized possession : Daphne.

Of course, she continued to claim that she wasn't his, but Malfoy knew otherwise. Both of their fathers were trying to be good allies and the best way to cement it was a marriage contract. Also, as he was the only boy in the Malfoy line, they might even get him the right to marry more than one girl so he could expand more their name. Astoria was also getting pretty well developed, getting both Greengrass sisters would be perfect and absolutely deserved as their family were always in the inner-circle of the Dark Lord. Maybe he'd get Pansy too, she did give good blowjobs and was a pure-blood. She could be his whore while the two Greengrass ladies were pregnant.

In the end, he was looking at her while liking his lips avidly. She certainly had filled pretty well over the years and he couldn't get out the image of her in her forest green bikini on the beach. She continued to push him away but he couldn't wait to have her screaming his name in agony while he ravished her virginity. He was a Malfoy, he shouldn't have to wait for what he wanted but of course, with the present government, that well deserved privilege was out of reach for him. Still, he could try and approach her again, one day she'd have to comply. Right now she seemed to be shining more than usual and he wanted to know why.

"Hello Daphne." Said Draco with his best honey-sweet voice. Daphne cringed at the sound but he didn't see it really.

"Its Greengrass for you, Malfoy." Spat Daphne, losing a bit of her good mood now. She had to get to her room before he ruined that evening, but he was blocking the way toward it. "Move."

"Why? I just wanted to talk a bit. You look especially good today. I want to know it if something can make you feel better." Said Malfoy with a cheeky grin.

"Why I want to get to my room and why I was happy before you came regards only me. Now move or I'll make you!" Threatened the Ice Queen. Most of the other slytherins were now looking at the show with interest. They knew that being in the same house as her didn't prevent them from being Frost-Bitten so they wondered if Malfoy would try it and if she would dare it.

"Don't be like that. I saw you on that beach. I've already been more intimate with you than the rest of the world, certainly that gives me a right to speak to you?" Said Malfoy.

"If you can't remember, it was a popular public Muggle beach I went to flee my father. That means three hundred Muggles saw me too on that beach. The only intimate thing you did was leer at me with much less subtlety than any other Muggles. So no, it certainly doesn't give you any advantage on me, doesn't give you a right to speak to me and certainly not a right to touch me." Told Daphne with venom in her voice, enough to even repel Malfoy a bit.

"Daphne, I know you wouldn't..." Malfoy reached to her shoulder with his hand, too prideful to think she would dare do something to a Malfoy, their family allies. How wrong he was. All the other could see was that he didn't even reached her before the spell hit him in the face. It started with the paralyzing jinx Tracey used on Harry that morning, followed by a nasty yellow colored jinx that got him genital warts on his bottom, a Diffindo to reveal it and finished by a spell that forced his body to contort foward in a painful looking way and got his face to his arse.

"Yes. I would. As you seem to like your own person that much, go and lick your own arse!" Shouted Daphne before going to the girl's dorm.

"That certainly was the worst Frost-Bite ever..." Said a sixth year Slytherin.

"And she did it to Malfoy of all people!" Said his friend.

"She's going to get it bad..." Finished a third one.

"Somebody went to get a teacher?" Asked a seventh year. "Even I don't know half of what she did to him so I can't revert him..."

Meanwhile, Daphne was fuming in the girl's dorm. She was alone for now and hoped Tracey would arrive... FAST. She would have gone out to search for her but it was nearing curfew and she didn't want to show herself in the common room right after her outburst. She knew the Malfoy were powerful, she knew her father was actively trying to make an alliance with them, but she still attacked the Malfoy scion. He deserved it, certainly, but damn she was in trouble. All she could hope was that Malfoy would be too prideful to report it to his father. Being forced to lick his own warted arsehole by the girl he sees as his possession might be enough of an humiliation that he'd prefer to forget it.

Her thoughts were broken by two very loud laughter coming to the room. Tracey and Astoria were holding one an other while walking through the door and falling on a bed together. "Daph... T-tell me you're the one who did it!" Asked the blonde.

The black haired witch knew they were talking about the contortionist ponce in the common room. "Y-yeah... I did... but I'll be in deep shit because of it so I still regret it a little..."

"Oh! Daphne is using dirty words!" Said Astoria. She was now sitting on Tracey's lap while the older one was sort of hugging her.

"Ehm... Is there a reason you look that much intimate to one an other?" Asked the elder Greengrass.

The two sitting on the bed looked at one an other before smirking mischievously, Tracey being the one to explain. "Well... You know I made myself the promise that I would morph your sister just like me? Well while I was teaching her all the finer points of masturbation with loads of demonstration and making her practice, we sort of hooked up and had lesbian sex all day long, it was great!"

Daphne's eyes bulged before her sister and her best friend started to laugh uncontrollably. "Oh god sis! You should have seen your face!"

Daphne had a relieved sigh. "I should have guessed it was a joke... I hate you so much right now... so what's the real reason?"

"Dunno." Shrugged Astoria. "We where keeping one an other from falling while laughing at Malfoy's fortune and I fell on her on the bed. When we got up we were in that position and I see Tracey as a second sister so its easy being comfortable with her. We just didn't move and Tracey seemed to think it was a good idea to traumatize you a bit, and I thought the same it seem."

"You'll pay for that Tracey!" Said Daphne in a mock angry pose. "Look what you did to my sister's innocence! She's only 14 since a week!"

"If you can't remember, she was already as bad as me when she was twelve. I just fueled it up a bit by teaming with her to disturb you!" Answered Tracey with pride.

"Yeah I know." Said Daphne with a sigh.

She did remember how Astoria would taunt her in her second year about the fact she had the biggest breast in class and that all the boys were at her feet, wishing they had the right to touch them. She was relieved to know she never allowed any boy to do it. In fact, she knew that her sister was just having fun laughing about all that but she had been awfully shy with her only boyfriend she had. She dumped him when she learned he only wanted to be the first to grab her chest, which he never did. It was the same for Tracey in fact. She had fun with it but even if she did have two or three boyfriends, her private areas remained untouched. She said they were all jerks in the end, playing a role, so she dumped them before going anywhere farther than snogging. Blaize was the last, in fourth year. She dumped him at the Yule Ball after he asked : "So, can I finally fuck you tonight?" Needless to say, he sang soprano for a while and stayed long at the infirmary.

"So how was YOUR day?" Asked Tracey with a knowing smile. "Don't tell me you screwed up everything after the magnificent set-up I left you in!"

From the look on Astoria's face, she totally knew what that was about. Sighing again – she did that often tonight – she complied. "Well, if we forget Malfoy being a jerk... best day of my life seem like a pretty weak statement but, its the closest I can think of."

The two other girls squealed like eight years old before double glomping her on her bed. Astoria was the first to talk. "I'm so happy for you!"

"You have to tell us the whoooole story my dear!" Said Tracey with a threatening finger.

"It's kind of private, you know?" Said Daphne. One look at her friend and sister told her she wouldn't get out of it. Sighing for yet an other time, she started to explain what happened, smiling more and more as she went on. It was a nice feeling, being able to talk like a normal teenager and it was about such a great memory that she forgot all about Malfoy and his stupidity.

* * *

><p>"Sooo... Did you kiss?" Asked Ron. He had a strange smile on his face but he still seemed genuinely happy for his friend.<p>

Harry was questioned about where he went after they received the response from Hervey Stenson. They were worried because Harry didn't look well when he left, but he was beaming when he returned, so of course Ron and Hermione were curious of what he did all day long. When they learned the news he and Daphne hooked up together with a very happy hazard, they were shocked. Hermion had a knowing smile on her face but refrained from squealing. That would have caught attention from others in the common room while they were trying to remain quiet and of course, she was above such thing... even if she felt the urge sometimes.

"Yes Ron, we did... All day..." Answered Harry, his face splitting in a ear to ear smile at the thought.

"Did you... grab her arse?" Asked Ron but was hit by Hermione behind his head. "Hey! I asked because he was almost obsessed by it since the other day!"

"That is still private. And I'm sure he wasn't obsessing about it, right Harry?" Said Hermione. When she saw her friend's ears become beat red from embarrassment she simply rolled her eyes while saying "...boys..."

"If you must know Ron, all we did was kiss and cuddle, but that was all I wanted." Said Harry, not saying the room gave them a bed for that, he knew Ron wouldn't leave him be if he told him.

The girl of the trio smiled at that and had a content sigh. She was a girls and she did wish that for herself with some boy she'd love. She had Krum but that was mostly weird, him being popular with girls but not at ease with them, a bad kisser and not tactful, so not a good experience in her mind. She knew Harry would be the first of the two boys to end up with a girl, he was so popular in the school and all he had to do was find a girl he liked and fight pass his nervousness. He had loads of girls to fall for that would have been good to him, Ginny the first. But it was a surprise, a BIG surprise that he ended up with the most inaccessible Slytherin of the school and that she wasn't only good for him, she was great. Since he started to talk to her, Hermione noted a big progress in his self confidence. As a result, his memory improved, his general academics made leaps and bounds in the subjects he had so much trouble before and he was in general much more happy. Still, of all the unlikely girl to fall for him and him fall for her in return, she was the most unlikely. That brought her with an other question though.

"How are you going to play this? Will you make it public or will you hide it?" She asked.

"We decided it was better to hide it for now. She's already almost an outcast in her house and her father won't see it well. So we'll keep seeing each other in secret until a solution present itself, she think he might force her to marry someone else immediately if he know." Said Harry.

"I don't like what I'm going to say but... What about YOU marrying her? That would prevent his father from forcing her to do anything and she'd be free of him as married couples become automatically emancipated." Said Ron. At Harry and Hermione's shocked face he understood that it was probably not something they had thought, being raised by muggle, if the term can be used for Harry. "Yes, become wife and husband. I know it sound silly, but that's the most direct solution I can think of to free her short of killing her father. I don't know about the muggle world, but in the magical one, they can be weds by fifteen. Though as they are not adults, it must be approved by the parents or tutor. In your case Harry, it would be Sirius and I'm sure he'd say yes. Wanted criminal or not, he's your godfather and Gringots are the one handling contracts and stuff. We all know they don't care about any human being wanted or not. As for her father... we could find a way to have him sign the authorization without knowing it... Maybe a protean charm on a piece of paper with a convulsion charm that would have him sign, the protean charm transferring the signature to the real papers. There is no alliance between big families so no need for an exchange of gold or anything, and no need for the use of a blood-quill to sign it with blood for the same reasons. Its Pure-Blood policy and as our family is Pure Blood, even if we're blood-traitors and proud to be, its still part of or culture."

"Ron, you know that you're brilliant sometimes?" Asked Hermione. "All that and the idea to use the protean charm combined with a convulsion charm... its brilliant!"

"How come you're so surprised?" Asked the redhead. Seeing Hermione glance at his homework and some corrected copies with very poor notes, his shoulder slumped a bit. "Yeah... well, I'm just lazy and I have one of the worst memory capacity ever. More like a selective one, I remember only what suits me or some random things that aren't useful anyway. That's why my only real knowledge is Quidditch, I love it so I concentrate on it... I'm just not able with most of school stuff."

"That's not unusual Ron!" Exclaimed Hermione. "There are tricks to help people like you study easier. In fact, there are also medication for that in the muggle world"

"What? I'd have a disease?" Asked Ron with shock.

"Not really. We call that Attention Deficit Disorder. You're not the hyperactive type though. You just have trouble to keep yourself in place, concentrate long on a subject and... ehm... you can become aggressive with failures." Explained Hermione.

Ron looked at her as if she was an alien at first before a light seemed to lit over his head. She seemed horrified but she knew it was because of the though most of his problems had a single name : Attention Deficit Disorder. "That... look like its possible... is it curable?"

"I'm no doctor, so I don't know the specifics, but my cousin had the same problem, with the hyperactivity though. Anyway, he took medication that helped him and I heard our parents say it was something that could just go away with time. They aren't doctors either but I think its possible that while you grow up, you get more used to it and you find ways to work around it until there's no sign of it anymore." Continued Hermione. She then turned back to Harry who had been happy to be ignored for so long. "Anyway, Harry... As for marrying your new girlfriend, its a bit too soon to think about it. While the suggestion would be an effective solution to your problems, is it really how you want that to happen?"

"Of course not." Said Harry. "Come on, we're together only since this morning, of course marrying her isn't an option yet. We're going to see where it goes first, if we still like each after some time, and hope nothing happens until she's seventeen. Then, she won't be subject to her father's authority anymore."

"Good." Said Hermione with a termination tone.

That seemed to close the discussion because everybody went back to their homework, Hermione giving new studying tips for Ron and Harry daydreaming of his new gorgeous girlfriend. They didn't know but a certain redhead girl was listening on the conversation from the portrait hole. They didn't name the person but Ginny knew who they were talking about. She knew she should be happy about it but, right now, she felt as if her heart was broken. Tomorrow was Saturday and there was a D.A. meeting, she didn't know if she'd be able to participate much that time...

* * *

><p>Unfortunately for the new couple, homework and exams came like a wave as the end of term approached, taking away precious alone, not studying time. They still managed to catch one an other between classes or on some evenings.<p>

Umbridge was her usual despicable self and Malfoy came back the next day without anything hurt other than his ego. The story of his misfortune was spread wide around school and Daphne was lucky the pompous boy didn't sent a letter to his father about it, or the pretty Slytherin would be having an awful Christmas. Harry was sad he wouldn't be able to give her her present for Christmas or her birthday – which was the 27th of December – on time as they decided to wait next term to exchange gifts. On a good note, they also made two pieces of parchment with the Protean charm so they could talk. They already tried it past curfew and used it a lot when they were in their separate dorms. They had to use the Tergo spell to erase and write back as the parchment wasn't big which made them very proficient with it. It wasn't perfect, but it was good until they found a better way.

In the end, they did mention their relationship to a few others. Luna found out herself with Jeff being with her and it didn't take long for them to learn that Ginny knew. In fact, the only two person that learned of it from them directly were Nevile and Susan Bones, both studying together in the Room when Harry and Daphne came in with Tracey. Those two where the ones they trusted the most outside those that already knew and they thought they deserved to be included in the secret. They didn't hang out much with them outside of D.A. meetings but they were part of those they appreciated the most in the large study group.

In the end Harry was happy that his friend circle was expending thanks to the D.A. Ron and Hermione were good friends, but they were only two. Nevile was the easiest one to befriend as he was in their house and already a friend anyway, he just became closer even though he was mainly hanging with Ginny, Luna and Jeffrey or Susan and Hannah. Ginny was a good friend to Harry and he knew she probably still had a thing for him, a fact Hermione implied not very subtly, but he saw her like a sister and wasn't able to think of her that way. Luna and Jeff were mainly just funny to be with but they hit it off pretty well. The lunatic would talk to them about weird stuff that would make them laugh while Jeff would be naive enough to believe it all, only saying we had strange stuff in England. The American stories about the war were more dark but very entertaining too.

Susan was the only Hufflepuf real friend they had. Hannah Abbott was fine too but wasn't able to blend much or really click with any one outside of her house other than Nevile. Susan was an other story. She was able to hit it off with anybody but Tracey certainly was her best friend after Hannah. They were a good duo in fights and always had fun together in the meetings. They learned only much later that she was in fact playing for the other team, as the other girls would say. The statement itself was pretty self-explanatory but Ron only understood when somebody specifically asked since when she was into girls. At that, the tall boy became so red he merged with his hair. After laughing for a long time of Ron's embarrassment - Harry was the only one to know he had actually thought about trying to flirt with her – Susan said she hoped it wouldn't change anything between them, especially Tracey. Of course Tracey didn't mind at all, as did all the others, but was clear she didn't swing that way. Susan waved it off, saying she never planed on it.

The red headed Hufflepuf kept them up to date about her aunt advancement in the "Get Umbridge In Trouble" project, but the DMLE was very busy and after dropping the class, it wasn't that important anymore so they didn't press the situation. They learned though that a memory in a pensive wasn't enough of a proof, a few wizards were good enough occlumens to create a memory or modify one before even extracting it. It was good enough to start a case and have an investigation team go, but they couldn't start anything without a proof or Umbridge would destroy any evidence, a blood-quill was easy to throw in a fire.

Harry's dreams were becoming more frequent. It used to be once a week, now it was more like twice or thrice a week. It was becoming weird too, he felt a lot of emotions about that door and he had the feeling it wasn't his own feelings, but it wasn't before December 18th that it became clear to him it wasn't normal dreams.

At first, it was a regular dream, it always was. In that one he was in the Room of Requirement with Daphne and he was fending of a bunch of Susan Bones that was trying to get to her. That was a reflect of the last meeting when the redheaded girl said, once they were only in presence of those who knew the secret, that she had always found the Ice Queen very attractive. Harry knew she wouldn't try anything and that anyway, Daphne wasn't into girls, but when a very attractive girl was saying she liked your girlfriend, you start to wonder. Being a boy, its very easy to understand liking girls and very hard to understand liking boys unless you're swinging that way, so you feel a certain irrational fear that your girlfriend might one day say "In fact, girls are much more attractive than boys!" Of course, Harry knew it wouldn't happen and simply told Susan he could understand her very much, making most people laugh and get a kiss from his other half. His mind knew it, yes, but his subconscious was seemingly still having a fight about it and Harry could only hope he would end up victorious.

Unfortunately, he never knew. His dream switched to that famous door, but his perspective was much different. He was on the ground, slippery, powerful and silent. His tongue could smell things he never smelled while awake. There was that man, sleeping on the floor, an easy prey. He smelled him and he couldn't wait to taste the supple flesh, drink the red liquid that the man needed to live and was saddened that he hadn't the right to take the time to eat him. At least, he was authorized to kill him.

Approaching, he took his time and decided where to strike first. The throat would be good. His master knowledge was telling him that it would kill the man faster, so he got his head back and prepared to strike. Darting his tongue an other time to smell the man again, he saw him stir and begin to wake up. No more time, he had to strike. In a flash he was lunging toward the throat but the man had good reflexes and lifted his arm, taking the first strike in a non-lethal way. It didn't matter, he was able to attack again, and again, biting where he could and marveling in the delicious taste of the man's blood when he pierced the skin with his teeth. The man was dying from blood loss and he could see it, but the man had enough strength to get his wand out and fire a spell at him. He didn't knew what it was but now knew he had to go.

"HARRY!" Yelled Ron for what was like the tenth time. "Oh god, he's really pale... Somebody get McGonagall!"

"Harry come on! Wake up!" Was saying an other voice that he knew was Dean.

"Yeah, wake up so you can shut up and let us sleep..." Said Seamus from farther away.

"Shut up... Seamus..." Said Harry with difficulty.

"Yeah Seamus, Harry's right!" Ron then registered who had spoken and turned to his best friend. "Harry! Thank god you're awake! You gave us a fit shouting like that in your sleep!"

Harry remembered what he had seen and knew he had no time to spare. "R-Ron, your father!" Said Harry, now wide awake.

"What about my father Harry?" Said Ron.

"He's been attacked! By me... I mean by a snake! He's in danger!" Said Harry.

"What do you mean? You just dreamed right?" Replied the redhead.

"No! Its was real! I know it!" By that time McGonagall entered the room and Harry was really relieved to see her.

"What is the matter here?" She asked. Before anyone else could say something, Seamus made himself known again.

"He had a dream about killing Ron's dad with a snake. Its plausible in fact as he's able to command them." His voice was bored at first but turned more serious on his last phrase. "I'm not sure I want to be sharing a dorm room with him in fact.

"Mr Finnigan, these are very serious accusations you are doing, leave it be for now." Said McGonagall she turned to speak to Harry but was interrupted by something they didn't think they'd hear in here.

"Hem Hem!"

Harry paled even more. What was SHE doing in the Gryffindor tower? They all turned to see Umbridge with the most horrible pink nightwear they even saw, wearing a grin that was enough to make everybody cringe.

"I personally think it is a pretty valid accusation." Said Umbridge.

"Do you intend to say Harry was able to get out of school and attack Mr. Weasley's father with a snake in his sleep?" Asked McGonagall, not happy about how the situation was going.

"There is no time for that!" Shouted Harry. "Mr. Weasley was attacked! I had a vision from the snake point of view and saw it happen! I know it wasn't a regular dream and I just ask that you at least make sure Mr. Weasley is still safe! And no, I never asked any snake to attack the closest person I have to a father!"

"Don't worry Mr. Potter, I believe you and will take the necessary measures. Meanwhile, I want you to go to the infirmary." Said Mcgonagall with a worried smile. Harry left out a relieved sigh before getting up, helped by Ron, and was walked toward the portrait. Unfortunately, Umbridge wasn't finished.

"Professor McGonagall! You will stay here until we have some sort of resolution to this situation!" She told firmly before blocking the aged woman's way.

"You can put me in probation for all I care, I'm not gonna ignore a claim like this even if there is only a sliver of chance it was true! Now get away Dolores!" McGonagall was furious and actually used a revulsion jinx to have her stand aside.

The High Inquisitor was seething but still had her prey around. Before Harry and Ron could make it to the portrait, she stopped them. "Hold it right there you two! I'll bring him. Mr Weasley, go back to sleep!"

"But how can I sleep when I know that my dad is in danger!" Said Ron. A few more students were coming out from the dorms, woke up by the tantrum. Fred and George were the first beside Ron and Ginny was soon with them too, looking worried.

"Don't worry so much. I'm sure Mr Potter was simply wanting more attention again by inventing all that." Walking to Harry and grabbing his arm, she pulled him toward the portrait hole before closing it hard. "When I heard Mr Longbottom run through the halls, I got up and was able to see him walk with you House Head – which she won't be for much longer – to you tower. I had to convince your portrait to let me in but in the end, I heard just what I needed."

Harry saw she wasn't taking him to the infirmary but in fact to her office. Once in there, she forced him to sit on the same chair he was using for his detention the first two weeks. He was able to avoid any other after that but the scar on his had was still clear enough to read it very well. She on her part sat behind her desk. "I had enough of your petty lies Mr Potter." Said Umbridge.

"Then why not use veritaserum on me if you want to know the truth? Mrs Umbridge?" Said Harry. A mischievous smile appeared on her face while she looked to be pondering the idea. Harry continued before she could say something though. "But not right now. A man is in danger and I want to be sure he's ok. And I want someone else from the ministry of my choosing to witness the interrogation. My good friend Susan Bones already told me it was in my right to ask that. I suspect you are familiar with her aunt?"

"You..." Started Umbridge with her brows furrowed before her office door was almost blasted open by McGonagall who was followed by the Weasley family.

"Dolores Umbridge! This boy needed to go to the infirmary! How dare you put one of my student's health on the line like that? If you wanted to interrogate him, that could have waited later!" Yelled the still current Head of Gryffindor.

"Professor McGonagall! Did you find him?" Asked Harry.

"Yes, we did." Reassured the woman present – Harry didn't consider Umbridge as a woman really. "He was lucky we were so fast, but he'll live. Come with me."

Harry rushed outside before Umbridge could protest but the toad-person still followed them to Dumbledore's office. They were rushed in and McGonagall was conveniently blocking the door from Umbridge. After she told the director that she had everyone, the old wizard handed them a piece of rope. Umbridge seemed to protest about whatever was happening, saying she had a say into it, but everybody ignored her, they'd deal with her later.

The portkey made the world spiral around them and they landed in Grimmauld place where Harry was immediately brought in a fierce hug from Mrs. Weasley. "Thank you Harry! Dumbledore told us you were the one to send the alarm just on time. Thank you!"

"It was nothing Mrs. Weasley..." Replied Harry with difficulty as he couldn't possibly breath with his lungs compressed like that. She finally let him go and hugged her other sons and daughter. Harry saw she was crying and could understand her.

"Harry... I just need to know..." Started Ron with a low voice. "I know you didn't do it, but what did you mean when you said that you attacked my father?"

Harry could see he wasn't blaming him or anything, he just needed to ease his mind. Unfortunately, Harry didn't have a very precise answer to that. "I don't really know. In fact, in the... vision, I _was_ the snake. I was understanding it's thoughts like they were mine, I was feeling what he felt and I saw from it's eyes. But I could tell they weren't my thoughts, my feelings or anything... It was weird..."

Ron was a bit shocked but nodded anyway. "Don't worry, I trust you. And it make a bit of sense in fact. I mean I can imagine. Its just that you said that you attacked him before immediately changing it to dad being attacked by a snake, I had to know what you meant."

"Its ok Ron, I'd have felt the same way." Said Harry, taking his shoulder. He got his hand in his pocket and felt a bit of parchment. Taking it out, he saw the last words he and Daphne had written to each other and he suddenly looked at Ron, making sure they were out of earshot. "I have to tell Daphne I won't be there tomorrow evening, we were going to meet one last time before we left."

Ron nodded his understanding and said he would cover up. Harry slipped away at the same time he heard Ron say that he wasn't feeling so good so that they would go upstairs to lean down a bit. The others didn't protest, Ginny seemed the only one with some doubts but she didn't know about the parchment Harry and Daphne were using, only Ron, Hermione, Tracey and Astoria knew of it. Not that they were hiding it but they didn't feel the need to tell them. Harry made a little wave of the hand, inviting her to come with them and she brightened slightly, well as much as she could with the situation. She also excused herself and followed them.

Once in the room, Harry saw a quill and some ink and sat down, putting the small piece of parchment on the table and started to use the tergo spell. Ginny came in just after Ron and they watched Harry write something in very small writing on it so it could fit. Daphne was certainly sleeping and wouldn't read it before she woke up so he decided to put everything in.

"What are you doing?" Asked the redheaded girl, a bit confused.

"Sorry. I'm writing a message to Daphne in fact. We used the Protean spell on identical pieces of parchment so we can write back and forth to each other. I'm just telling her I won't be there tomorrow, we were supposed to meet." Explained Harry

"Oh." Said Ginny, her mood darkening a bit. "Why did you want me here then?"

"No particular reason. I saw you looked doubtful and I thought you'd want to know what we were really going to do. Beside, I didn't want to stay alone with Ron too long." Said Harry with a small smile, trying to lighten to mood.

"Hey!" Exclaimed the concerned boy.

Ginny laughed a bit regardless of the situation. "I can understand not wanting to be with this git too long." She said while Ron took a mock offended look. "Thanks for including me anyway."

"No problem." Said Harry.

The small laugh passed, the reality of the situation came back and they all looked a bit down. Ron was the first to speak after that. "That situation is so fucked up..."

"Totally..." Said Harry. "Did you have a bit more information on your dad?"

"No more than what McGonagall told you." Answered Ron "They got him with barely just enough time to save him and should be able to heal him without consequences, but that was a close call. Good thing McGonagall ignored Umbridge order. She really is a bitch."

"Yeah. Before you came in, I was trying to have her interrogate me with Veritaserum, so long as I have Amelia Bones as witness, just like Susan said would be the best scenario." Said Harry.

"I doubt she's gonna accept." Said Ginny.

"We'll see." Said Harry. "Anyway, I don't see an other way to prove both that I said the truth and that Umbridge is using a blood-quill."

The other nodded but their conversation was interrupted by the door opening, revealing Molly Weasley. "Time to go to bed. We're going to see Arthur later in the morning only, but they assured us that he was going to be alright. Again, thank you Harry, our family owes you a life debt."

Harry simply nodded and said it was ok. It was a bit over three in the morning and now that the adrenaline was passed, they were all feeling very drowsy. Ginny hugged Harry as a thanks and a mutual comforting gesture then left the room, leaving the boys looking at each other with mixed feelings on everything that happened.

"Well... I think that I'll have weird dreams tonight... I hope you don't have weirder." Said Ron while yawning.

"Yeah... me too..." Concluded Harry while removing his glasses and clutching the parchment under his pillow while he slept.


	7. Chapter 7

Later in the morning, the whole family plus Harry were in St. Mungo to visit Arthur. Harry was woken up by Ron and he found out that his piece of parchment still had his message to Daphne on it. He frowned a bit to that before looking at the time. It was barely seven thirty at the time and Daphne had a free period in the morning, just like Harry, so she probably slept in later.

opened to visitors at eight so they were eating early and waited for their escort to the hospital, Mad Eye and Tonks in fact. Sirius had been a bit frustrated because he wasn't woke up to be told that his godson was here, or even told the situation. He calmed down anyway when he learned of exactly what happened and that it happened too fast to think about that, but he still thought that the owner of a house should know when five new persons visited him on such short notice... Not that he could have made the house more pleasant or anything but meh! It was for the principle.

They had entered by the window of that seemingly closed shop, Harry thinking that magic always surprised him every day, ending up in the hall where lots of people where waiting. One of them had a head that was at least ten times the size of a normal head, needing a metallic support to avoid him breaking his neck. He was talking to a witch on his side, somewhat pretty but certainly not interested in what the young man was saying. That, or her expression was related to the fact her right hand was heavily bandaged and not of a natural form.

"Yeah well... I thought it was funny as hell how in muggle's mangas, animes or cartoons in general, people had their head become very big when they were angry or trying to look intimidating, so I tried... Not the best idea I must say."

"Yeah... Amazing... Isn't it your turn now?" Replied the woman without any enthusiasm.

Harry laughed a bit at the man's story. He did know what he was talking about as he was able to watch TV sometime and did catch a few times scenes like that. Even if he did find it funny at the time, he never wished to try it and certainly wont ever now that he saw the result.

Arriving at the counter, after a man holding his daughter who had sprout wings by the ankle like a balloon left for the fourth floor, they asked to see Arthur Weasley. The receptionist directed them his current room, saying that he hadn't woke up yet.

Molly looked the worse at that mention. She was hoping her husband would be able to tell her he was alright, that he would be out tomorrow and she would scold him for saying that, ordering him to stay until he was in even better condition than before he was attacked.

But no.

They entered the room and Arthur's bed had the curtains closed while a witch in green clothing was writing something on a paper. When she saw them, she dropped her quill and stood up, walking to them.

"I'm sorry, but it wont be possible to see him..." Said the healer. Harry saw that her badge was saying Chloe Davis. His urge to ask the evident question was stopped though when Molly asked her more pressing one.

"Is he... Is he ok? Why can't we at least see him?" Asked the plump woman.

"His life isn't in danger but he is in bad shape. I'm sorry I can't tell you that in a more easy way but... he's probably going to be out for a while... A lot of his bones where broken, that snake was certainly huge. Some of them were so badly broken that repairing them the normal way wasn't possible, so we had to vanish them and get them to regrow, but that is only three small bones." Explained Chloe. Harry remembered the Skele-grow and certainly didn't have a good memory of it. Chloe saw it and smiled a bit. "You experienced the Skele-grow already did you?"

"Oh! Yeah. In second year, a teacher... well he wasn't actually qualified in fact, tried to repair a simple broken arm and ended up vanishing every of my arms bones..." Said Harry.

"Oh my!" Exclaimed the Healer. "As I said, he have only three small bones vanished, it will be regrown in a hour or so. Even if its painful, its nothing compared to your experience. Its the kind of thing you're happy you were unconscious or wish you had been... Anyway, lets get back on topic... Other than that, your husband will keep a lot of scars, some not very pretty, mainly on his arm that took most of the damages. That particular arm will be less mobile now. We had hope he wouldn't get any permanent side effect but... The poison of the snake, not lethal if treated immediately, have lasting paralysing effects when a good quantity is injected, but at least it remains local there. Oh and ehm... I'll keep the next effect private if you wish..."

Seeing the healer look a bit nervous, Molly seemed to ponder but her need to know was stronger. Seeing Mad Eye and Tonks were outside, she just shook her head. "Please tell me all, we are all family so everything can be said."

Harry smiled when she didn't rule him out of family. The Davis smiled a bit nervously before shrugging and continuing. "Ok well... the numbing effect will also temporarily affect you husband's erection capabilities for about a month so..."

"Stop! Ok sorry... That should stay out of the rest of the family..." Said Molly, more than a bit red now. The situation didn't stop a few of the children to snicker a bit uncontrollably. Harry was the best at keeping them though.

"Sorry, I should have waited for when you were alone." Said the Healer. "Anyway that's about it for the effects. He does have a scar, not very big, that will stay on his right cheek. Its the only visible one."

Molly nodded before asking the one question everyone wanted to know the answer. "When do you think he'll wake up?"

"That is the worst news, we can't tell." Healer Davis said with a sad look. "He might wake up any seconds now to a month later or even more, but I doubt its going to be soon. His body is fighting against the paralysing poison in his body and no antidote have any effect now. Had we found him mere seconds before, he really wouldn't have had any side effects or even scars while few more seconds and it would have been too late... Be certain that you will be contacted once he does wake up, regardless of the time of the day or night."

"Oh Merlin... God please don't take him away from me for so long..." Whispered the mother of the family, hugging her daughter that came to her with tears forming in her eyes.

Harry was shocked. He knew they had been lucky but to know mere seconds would have kept him from having lingering side effects made him angry. Umbridge was the one that kept McGonagall those precious few seconds in the common room, it was her fault. He didn't got any other detention since his first one and because of that, they didn't put too much effort in having justice rendered, but now he couldn't sit back anymore and he would get back at her. A good talk with Susan was needed when they returned. A talk with Sirius also, he was indeed a renown prankster in his school years.

The rest of the visit was a bit more enjoyable. Chloe Davis had to leave for a bit but said she'll come back with the head healer a bit later to check on Arthur's condition. That left Harry a bit alone for a while as the Weasley's stood together in the room. Harry had excused himself because even if he considered them as family, he felt a bit odd with them like that. He said it was a bit cramped so he got out and sat on a chair outside. Mad Eye was looking everywhere with his electric blue eye while Tonks was buying something at the magical version of a vending machine.

At that time, the young boy started to hear scratching noise coming from his pocket. He knew what that meant and quickly got the parchment out, unfolded it and saw writings appear with the scratching. For some reason, the protean charm also transferred the sound of the writing. Daphne thought it might be because when she applied the charm, her subconscious imagined the resulting appearance of the ink with the sound, kind of the same way Hermione had the Galleons warm up when the master one was changed, but it probably was voluntary on her side. Harry didn't understood much of it anyway. He was good in practical portions of the classes but still had trouble in theoretical even if he was getting better.

_Don't worry Harry, I understand and I'm sorry for what happened to Mr. Weasley. Tell the others we are with them (Tracey is there too). You'll have to tell me more about that vision you had. We'll talk later, take good care of them. (Tracey ask you to say hello to her sister if you see her. The only Davis in the hospital)_

_Later!_

Harry smiled at that and put the paper back in his pocket. At the same time, said Healer was walking toward the room with a dark skinned man in green robes but a more high ranked style. Harry compared them to a doctor and a nurse. Without thinking in fact, Harry got up and followed them in the room. After a small check-up, the Head Healer left Chloe with them. Ron saw Harry walk to her and went with him.

"Hello. You're Tracey Davis sister right?" Asked Harry. "She's a friend of mine."

Chloe seemed startled a bit but smiled in the end. "Oh? I didn't know my sister had a friend outside of Daphne. You're... Harry Potter! Oh my, that certainly goes back to mom."

Ron smiled at that as did Harry. Now looking at her, the raven haired boy thought they did look alike. "Well we're keeping the fact we're friends a secret. House rivalries would get the Slytherins skinning her for that."

"They can try." Said Chloe with a murderous look. "I'm a healer so I know how to torture someone so close to death they'll actually visit hell before I get them back to life."

That threat send shivers in Ron's spine but he still laughed at that. By now, Ginny and the twins had joined them, also making the link with her name.

"She told us she had a sister in St. Mungo, I knew it was you when I saw your name." Said Ginny. Her eyes were red from crying but she seemed better now, the head healer said everything was progressing well so it relieved her. The twins nodded with a smile.

"I see she's making a lot of friends. Take care of her will you all?" When everyone agreed, she said she had to finish the papers and see another patient, putting an end to the pleasant encounter.

"Its cool to meet her." Said Fred.

"Yeah, she make good threats! Think we can use it sometime?" Continued George.

"You're not healers." Countered Ron.

"Not for now!" Said both twins at the same time and growing wicked smiles. Ginny finally laughed a bit before following all of them out of the room, leaving Molly in as she didn't want to leave the bed's side even if she couldn't see her husband. The Head Healer did promise he'd let her see him before she left, he said the Skele-Grow wasn't finished and it wasn't beautiful to see, even if Arthur didn't feel the pain, his body was fighting it.

Once outside, they saw Tonks licking a lollipop but not looking that pleased about the taste judging from her frown. Harry heard her muttering something about how hospital sweets always had to taste less good than regular one. Seeing them out though, she went to them.

"Are we leaving already?" She asked.

"No, we just wanted to leave the room a bit." Said Harry.

"Ok." She said before looking at them sit but not say a word for a few minutes. Leaning on the wall near them, she decided to break the silence, because she hated it. "Well I'm a bit bored so, how about you tell me about your year?"

Shrugging, Harry started to tell the story of the year. They took turns in the end and told most of the stuff they did. They knew Tonks enough to trust her with some secrets and so they told her about their friendship with some Slytherins, but saw that they weren't able to tell a single word about their meetings for the DA. It surprised them a bit but remembered of the fidelius charm and that it was Hermione that was the Guardian of the Secret. Harry did tell about the Room of Requirement though. Stories about Umbridge made the Auror frown while she smiled widely when she learned of their growing friend circle. The Room of Requirement interested her a lot of course and she did ask a lot of questions. All in all, it was fun and a bit relieving to talk to somebody about something else. None of the person present could really forget why there were here, but the combination of knowing Arthur was going to be ok, even if he won't wake up soon, and the change of subject allowed them to feel better.

"So... Now lets get into juicy topics." Said Tonks with a mischievous smile. "I might not look like it, but I like a few gossips sometime. Who's got an eye on who?"

The three younger looked a bit nervous at that. The twins laughed, not stressed at all and were the ones to answer.

"Ginny is with a Ravenclaw... Though we don't see them together a lot recently..." Said Fred or George.

"I left him. He became a real git when the Gryffindor team got interdicted from playing. Said it didn't change the chances of Ravenclaw and we argued a lot more than usual. I dumped him when he laughed at me when I said I'd present myself if the seeker place was still available when the teem was back in place... sorry Harry."

"No problem Ginny. Didn't knew you played though." Said Harry with a sincere smile.

"Neither did us." Said all three Weasley boys with shocked eyes.

"Oh please!" Said the young girls while rolling her eyes in exasperation. "You never let me play when you're there so I usually borrow a broom when you're out and practice on the field. I even played in turn with Charlie as chaser and keeper when he visited on Christmas in third year and he said I was good."

The three brothers looked at each other, not believing their sister could play Quidditch. Tonks laughed at their look for a bit before commenting. "Never rule out somebody before you see them in action. She's small but can very well impress you. But we're drifting from the main subject... Any of you handsome boys got a girlfriend?"

The twins shook no from the head while Ginny and Ron gave a small glance at Harry that looked a bit nervous. The glances were very small but it wasn't subtle enough to escape the trained Auror's eyes. "Oh? The Boy-Who-Live got a Girl-He-Likes?"

This brought the twins attention too while Ron just couldn't stop himself from smiling widely. Ginny looked away but didn't say anything. Harry saw her though so he decided to not be a tactless git and just shook his head. "Sorry, private. Maybe some other time."

At that, Ginny head snapped toward him and she saw him make the faintest smile to her. Unfortunately for them, Tonks misinterpreted the exchange. "AH! You two then!" She exclaimed.

The statement shocked a lot the two twins while Ron facepalmed. It was Ginny that denied the statement first. "No! I'd say unfortunately but that's only me..."

Now the violet haired woman looked very much ashamed and bit her lower lip. "Oh... Sorry I thought the smile and the look... sorry..."

"Its ok..." Said Ginny. "I have to get around it someday."

"Well he doesn't know what he is missing!" Said Tonks in a way to cheer a bit Ginny. It didn't work much but the redhead girl still smiled at the remark.

"You say that." Countered the redheaded girl. "But that is because you don't know what he got!"

"Who?" Said both twins and Tonks at the same time.

Harry was trying to think of a way around it but in the end he resigned himself. He knew they'll keep the secret and that anyway, he couldn't escape it. "... Daphne Greengrass..." He added the last name for Tonks but it was the twin's reaction that was the most priceless.

"YOU GOT YOURSELF THE ICE QUEEN!" They asked disbelievingly at the same time, a bit too loud for Harry's tastes. Their eyes were so wide open that Harry feared they would pop out. Strangely, he had the thought that anyway, they were at the best place for that to happen.

Rubbing the back of his head while Ron was almost rolling on the floor laughing at his brother's reaction and Ginny's smile widened a bit, just enough to reassure Tonks she wasn't hating the situation that much, Harry just nodded two times. At that same moment, Fred and George got on the floor and began revering him.

"We are at you service..." Said Fred.

"Please, give us your advices..." Continued George.

"Tell us your secret with girls!" They ended together.

Now Tonks had joined Ron on the floor while Ginny was laughing, holding her ribs in joyful pain. Harry couldn't help himself and also started to laugh. Their antics caught a lot of attention from neighbouring rooms and Harry was glad he told his secret now. They had been casually talking for a while but there always was that small darkness in everybody's eyes, a reminder of the reason they were here. But right now, laughter was back into the group and it felt good.

"What are you laughing so loud about?" Asked Molly that got out of the room at the noise, not angry but still a bit annoyed.

"Nothing mom... Funny story from Tonks" Said Ginny. "She just wanted to lighten the mood a bit and it worked I'd say."

Mrs. Weasley softened at that while the others played along. Tonks seemed to understand immediately that it was a secret to keep but told Harry in a low voice so Molly wouldn't hear that she had to meet that girl sometime. Harry nodded just as the only standing woman turned around toward the room. The Head Healer was there, smiling.

"You can come see him, but I will have to dismiss you after that. We will continue to try and accelerate the process and we can't have anybody with us for that. You may stay outside the room but we can't keep all of you here all the time. Sorry about that."

While the black man explained the situation, the family plus Harry entered. Tonks stayed outside as she was only an escort, not a family member. The Head Healer explained a bit what he would look like before opening the curtains but it wasn't enough to prepare them that much to the view. Mr. Weasley had a hospital gown, the sleeve of his left arm was removed while the arm itself was in a long transparent tube filled with what Harry guessed was some potent healing ointment. They could see the scars through it and Harry winced when he saw them as they really were big. The rest of his body was covered by blankets, leaving his shoulder and head out. His face did show a small scar on the cheek but it was already fully healed. What really surprised them was how much he was pale and sweating, his face's muscles were contorted in a grimace of constant pain.

Not able to look more at his father figure in this state, the only not-redhead backed off out of the room. He knew Ginny saw him leave, as did Ron, but they didn't say anything. Once outside, his mind started to wander on the situation and what that meant, inevitably putting the blame on himself in the end. Even if Voldemort's priority was close to world domination, his immediate goal was the boy who stopped him more than fourteen years ago. The Dark Lord was after him and he certainly wouldn't stop himself from hurting his friends and family to reach him. Of course, it was tempting to just leave and forget, cut all the links so Voldemort didn't target his friends and loved ones. Leaving right now wouldn't change anything or protect them in any way, as it was already common knowledge that he was friend with all those, Voldemort would target them just so he got out of hiding. He didn't know if he'd be able to simply leave Daphne to protect her. If he knew that it would really protect her, he would without any hesitation, but he doubted it. He knew she wouldn't let him anyway.

That left only one option : have them be able to protect themselves enough to make him feel better. Looking to his right, he was the two Aurors looking at him.

Then it clicked, and he smiled.

* * *

><p>"Ok Harry, we're all here now... what did you want?" Asked Tonks.<p>

A few days had passed and he was now standing with Hermione and the Weasley kids, facing Tonks. On her right was Sirius and Mad-Eye Moody, looking intrigued for the first and strangely calm for the second. He would have liked to have Lupin too but it was already good.

"Ok. Well... Hermione will have to explain you what we do at school, that's why I asked to wait until she was there to gather here." Said Harry.

"You mean...!" Started Hermione, looking shocked a bit.

Ron, Ginny and the twins knew of the plan as he asked them their opinion and they of course agreed, thinking it was a good idea.

"Yes. I might be a good... a... Damn tell them so we can talk freely please? Oh! For those that don't know yet, there is a room on the seventh floor in Hogwarts that can become what you want when you ask for it." Harry added for Moody and Sirius. Hermione wouldn't have been able to tell half of her part without that secret being released first. That seemed to catch his godfather attention the most also.

"Really?" Asked the Maraudeur with a big smile. "We knew there was something like that but never found it! How did you?"

"I asked Dobby. The elves do know a lot." Said Harry with a smile. "Anyway, please go ahead Hermione. At least give the secret and I'll explain."

"Ok Harry." She said, a smile on her face and a pretty excited look too. "We and some other students gather to practice Defense Against Dark Arts in Umbridge's back. She didn't teach us anything so we decided to learn by ourselves."

"That's a good idea, but why couldn't Harry tell... OH!" Tonks looked very shocked by what she just understood. "You did the Fidelius? Even I don't know it!"

"Yeah, there's a Fidelius on both the Room and the secret meetings with me and Hermione as the guardians, respectively." Said Harry. "Daphne is the one that applied it in fact. She say its not that hard, just complex."

"Your girlf..." Started Tonks before she caught herself and started to cough, but it was too late.

Sirius got to Harry and started to nudge him teasingly. "Oh? So the pup got himself a girlfriend?"

"Sorry Harry... My tongue slipped..." Said Tonks, shameful.

"Its ok Tonks. I trust them so its alright." Said Harry. He was still a bit annoyed by the fact his secret was just revealed and he knew his godfather wouldn't let him continue without a name.

"So? Who is it Mr lover-boy?" Asked the immature man.

"Daphne Greengrass." Said Harry. The look on Sirius's face dropped from happy to surprised, then a bit worried. That look surprised Harry, he thought the man would jump on it and ask to meet her as soon as possible, not look as if he drank spoiled milk then feared of being sick.

"Greengrass?" Said Sirius. At that, Harry understood what went through his head. Worse, even Moody that didn't talk until then now had both his eyes on him wit a strange surprised look. "You do know they are..."

"Yes I know." Said Harry to cut him off. "I know and that was one of the first thing she told me when we got alone. She hates her father a lot for what he is. Her best friend is a half-blood from Slytherin too while her sister also share her point of view. I trust all of them. You will meet her soon during the term if what I plan goes well."

That had both Sirius and Moody softened enough to only look intrigued by what he meant. Harry decided to add something just for the fun of teasing his godfather.

"Also, she is bloody sexy." He said with a cheeky grin.

That did the trick as Sirius laughed heartily. "Good one then pup. Can't wait to meet her and see for myself if she's ok for you. I knew her father in my school year. Not a good lad."

"And I'd arrest him if I'd see him." Said Moody. "Now boy, I think I can guess what you want from us..."

"Probably." Said Harry to the experienced Auror. "I want my friends... and me while we're at it, to be trained to fight. After what happened to Mr. Weasley, I thought about stuff and I'm certain that they are all in danger simply from seeing me on a regular basis. I can't protect them anymore by simply going into exile so he wouldn't target them, because that would give the complete opposite effect and he'll target them to get me out of hiding."

The others in the small sealed bedroom looked at him with a bit of sorrow. They certainly couldn't refute these statements. Sirius and Tonks also began to understand and a hint of a smile started to appear.

"So that's it. I want you to train us. Moony too if he want. I'm not bad at teaching new spells, something I learned by doing it, but I miss the kind of experience we get from real fighting, not just from struggling to stay alive." Harry explained all that while looking at the adults. He said he trusted them when Tonks let his secret slip, but that was mainly Sirius and herself he was thinking. He didn't knew much of Moody, the real one, but he knew he was dependable and mostly, very experienced, the best some said. That was what he needed.

"That's a good idea, but how will we get inside the castle?" Asked Tonks.

"Well I know loads of good secret passages to get in the grounds. Getting to the seventh floor without being seen will be a problem though." Said Sirius, less excited now.

"We can arrange that." Said Harry with a smile. "The Room create shortcut on demand to anywhere in the grounds as long as there is a portrait there. Well, we didn't experiment that much with it and only used portraits but I guess there are other ways."

"No Harry." Countered Hermione. "I tested it already a lot with Jeff. In fact, we tested a lot of stuff with the room. It can only get us through a portrait. My theory is that while the Room is on "Demand", it was still programmed and have its limits. Portraits are the only possible gateways because they are all linked through magic. Hogwarts portraits are even more linked than others which allows for time-space modification when creating a shortcut. When we ask the Room for a passage through a portrait, it creates a second image of the targeted portrait and we use the magic that bind portraits of the same person to travel through time and space. But that is only within Hogwarts as the magic there is extremely strong."

Harry looked confused a bit but mostly disappointed. Hermione though still had a smile on her face before she continued.

"Anyway. That doesn't mean its not possible. A solution would be to create a gateway through a portrait near a secret passage, but I thing that is still very risky. One thing we couldn't check that much is that while the time-space gateways are only possible in Hogwarts, we were able to create physical passages from the Room to any portrait we thought of, even outside of Hogwart's grounds. What I mean by physical, is that we actually need to walk the whole real distance, so no instant transportation to here and I doubt they want to travel that much distance every time they come."

"What do you suggest then?" Asked Ginny.

"They apparate in Hogsmeade, somewhere we can put some portrait big enough to walk through, somewhere hidden and safe. And we use that portrait for a passage to the castle with only a few minutes walk." She said.

Harry now had a very wide smile and every one in the room looked excited to say the least. Sirius was the one to propose the perfect place immediately.

"The Shrieking Shack, its perfect." Said Sirius. "Oh god that will be good to feel like I can finally do something! I thinks I'll teach you some Martial Arts. Its bloody useful as most Death Eaters don't even think of using something else than their wands. The Blacks have always been traditional. Fencing and hand to hand combat goes far in the family even if its not as much as before."

"Jeff will like that, he told us that Martial Arts are part of his interests." Told the red head girl with a smile. She also didn't mind learning how to kick arses.

"Well if he likes martial arts, he'll be happy to learn then." Said Harry. "I didn't thought much about physical fighting style at first but its not a bad idea. I guess that mean you two plus Moony if he accepts can teach us more about the magical fighting?" He added while looking at Tonks and Mad-Eye.

"Of course Harry, but we have another problem, right here." Said Tonks while pointing to the ex-convict. "I doubt the students will be happy to see a renown mass-murderer come to teach them."

Harry lost his smile instantly. It was like she had just burst a very pretty bubble that was hanging over his head. Hermione was once again the one to save the day in the end.

"Polyjuice." She suddenly said, as if it just hit her in the face from obviousness. "We take hairs from some unknown muggle and Sirius can come to teach us under disguise. We'll just have to use your nickname."

"Good idea!" Said Sirius. "I could also come as a pretty and very busty woman!"

"You just want to grope yourself, pervert." Replied Tonks. "It shouldn't be too hard to get the ingredients. Full moon is soon so we can pick fluxweed easily. That way it'll be ready in the first few days of the term."

"Good, that is solved." Cut Moody, looking serious. "How serious are your friends about training?"

That had Harry and the other students thinking. Hermione was the one to answer.

"I guess we can say most of them will stop coming if the training is too hard, unfortunately, most being there only so they will pass their NEWTs. I guess we should start slow." Said the bushy brunette. "There are a few of us that would be taking it very seriously though. Maybe two types of trainings at the same time? Or different times but that would mean everyday of the week and we can't do that."

"We'll work something out in place and time." Said Moody. "I'll be mostly teaching you in fighting. Experience is what you all need and I won't go easy on any of you, so I'll only be there for serious people."

All the students gulped yet were excited at the thought of fighting that man, even in mock sparring matches. Tonks on her side looked mostly thoughtful.

"We'll need a way to keep contact easily to set up meetings and also for you to know when to ask for the passage to the Shrieking Shack." She said.

"We have the fake Galeons but they only tell the date to other members." Said Ron.

"Or we can use the Protean charm on a piece of parchment like Harry and his girlfriend did." Said Tonks. "But it would be better to have a way to communicate verbally, its so much easier to keep a conversation that way. Also the piece of paper can be found and we won't be able to know who we're talking to, might give too much information to the wrong person that way."

Sirius shifted from one foot to another, visibly trying to decide between one thing or another. He was so obvious that after a few seconds of silence, he saw that they were all waiting for him to voice his thoughts.

"Oh screw it... I wanted to give it to you as a Christmas gift but... well, its also a solution to the problem. Wait here a bit." Said the owner of the place.

They all watched him leave the room and come back a few minutes later. Harry felt a bit bad to get what was supposed to be his Christmas gift in advance but thought it was for the best if it could help them to their goal. Sirius was holding a square package small enough to fit in a pocket.

"Well... Merry Christmas Harry!" Said Sirius.

Harry took the package but didn't unwrap it immediately. "We can wait until Christmas if you want, it's only in a few days."

"No, its ok." Said Sirius. "I have another present anyway, that was supposed to be a secret gift, but the cause is too good to pass that chance."

Nodding, Harry smiled at his godfather and unwrapped a square piece of mirror. When he saw his own questioning look in it, he lifted his gaze to his father's best friend.

"This is a two-way mirror. It's twin is in my room. By saying my name to it, we'll be able to talk as if face to face." Explained the adult. "James and I used them to talk when we got separate detentions."

"Is it working only with you?" Asked Hermione.

"No. It works with anyone. It doesn't do anything if the person you're trying to talk to isn't near enough to hear you call his or her name." Said Sirius.

"Is there a way to activate it silently without saying the other's name out loud?" Asked Moody. "Its not that useful if your pocket suddenly shout your name in front of somebody."

"I guess we can apply a part of the Protean charm like I did to the Galeons, having it warm itself when a condition is met." Proposed Hermione. Moody seemed to approve of the idea and most of the present group started to discuss of the condition that has to be met. Harry though went to his godfather to thank him.

"Thank you, Sirius. That really means a lot to me..." Said Harry with a big honest smile. He was very happy of the mirror because he would have a way to speak to Sirius. Of course, as they planned to see one another often through the school year anyway, it was less of a big deal, but it was still good to know he would have his godfather a word away.

From Harry's look, Sirius knew his godson was sincere, but he also saw there was something else he wanted to say, or ask in that situation. "No problem Harry, I want to be there every time for you if you need. Now tell me what you want to ask."

"Well, ehm... Would you... be able to make another pair?" He asked. At that question, Sirius left a chuckle before smiling widely.

"We'll have to ask Moony. He is in fact the one that made them. Most charmworks in school for our tools, like the map, were done by him. Me and James were more of the Hex and Jynx type, we lost our touch when it became too practical." He gave a knowing smile at his pup as he was fond of calling him. "I guess its so you can talk to your sexy other half?"

Harry turning red was as good an answer to Sirius than words. Laughing at his godson reaction he brought him into a bear hug. "I'm proud of you. Even if your pick is a bit surprising, you didn't restrain yourself to labels. I just can't wait to meet her so I can ease my mind about her lineage."

Harry only nodded, happy to have one more of his most precious person happy for him. They didn't get to share much long of a time in that godfather-godson moment as Moody raised his voice.

"Well... How about you lads start early on the training?" He asked with a serious look.

Once again, every students gulped as one, not sure if they should answer. After an insisting look from the experienced wizard, they all had the same thought that for a Christmas break, it probably wouldn't look like a break at all.


	8. Chapter 8

"Well... I guess that's it for today." Said Moody from the centre of the room.

All around him were Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Fred and George, taking a forced nap on the floor. They were bruised and certainly not energetic anymore. They could only use what Moody called "toy-spells". They were spells that imitated the shape, speed and color of a specific spell, but was only doing blunt damage. Still, being repeatedly hit by them was not pleasant.

None of them felt like they improved at all. Of course it had only been two weeks that they had started the training but they felt like they were becoming worse instead of better. The thing was that Moody wasn't even the worst of their four teachers – Moony had agreed too. Sirius was pretty easy on them in the end, having them practice a few stances and stretch to gain flexibility more than anything else. Lupin was the easiest, having them practice a few advanced spells but nothing more. No, it was Tonks that was totally the meanest, sadistic and simply the most merciless slave driver of the whole country and that wasn't even an exaggeration. Mad-Eye had told them that she was part of the last Auror group he trained and she was even more feared than him by the other trainees. She was the one that decided to get them "in shape". The room might not have been big, but she was able to make them feel like they had just run the whole way to Hogwarts. Oh they still liked her as a person, but that didn't stop them from dreaming about her in their place.

They didn't hide their activities from the others, even Molly thought it was a good idea to be training even if she thought they were going a bit hard on them. She didn't complain too much because even her knew that in the end it was for the best.

They were using a pretty large basement room that was only recently cleaned and reinforced. Its size was comparable to what they usually had for the Room of Requirement on their D.A. meetings. The walls had some warding to prevent spell-casting from doing damage. Well, most of the spells were cushioned by themselves anyway, Moody being bloody good at aiming and anticipating their dodges.

They questioned if doing magic shouldn't be restricted for student under seventeen, but they were told that the Trace affected areas around underage sorcerers, not wizard himself. Being in a house under the Fidelius, all the ministry could find if they checked the results is that magic is done around underage children somewhere they can't find by people they can't know about. That relieved them a lot as they feared Umbridge would use it against them at school.

Christmas had come and gone so fast they didn't even felt it. It certainly wasn't the most cheerful Christmas Harry had even if it was better than with the Dursley. They passed the whole Christmas Eve at St. Mungos and most of Christmas Day too, the Hospital exceptionally accepting that family stayed for the night. It was hard to see Molly hoping her husband would wake up for Christmas, like a miracle for that joyful day, but still crying because she knew the chances were beyond slim. That had Harry and Hermione walk a bit on Christmas day to avoid the sight and leave the family together. As much as Harry thought of them as a family, he still didn't felt like the odd one in these situations. He felt bad for it as it was like they were only a family when he wanted it and was abandoning them when it was too hard, even if it wasn't true.

During their walk, they met Nevile on the twenty-fifth and also met his parents and grand-mother. That wasn't the fun encounter they would have thought it would be if they knew they'd meet him, but they learned a lot about their shy friend. Hermione complained for a while after that his grand-mother was all but impairing his performances in everything by pounding his self-esteem to the ground. Even if he was approving, Harry hoped she'd stop blabbering about it.

Now it was New Year's Eve and after their workout... or "beatout" as Ron called them, Harry dragged himself to his room, wishing for a little nap now. They had talked about celebrating the new year but now, neither of them had the energy for that. While he slipped himself in bed, scratching noise was heard on his bedside table.

"Seems like your girlfriend don't want you to sleep." Said Ron with half a smile, the other half lost in current laziness. "Sucks to be you..." He added as he felt asleep the moment his head touched his pillow.

"Hmf..." Was the only response from the Boy-Who-Want-To-Sleep.

Taking the piece of parchment, and reading, he suddenly felt completely awake.

_Harry, I need to see you... Is there a way to meet somewhere?_

What had Harry react the most wasn't the words, but the tear drops that were appearing on the paper, loads of them. She was crying and that gave Harry new-found energy. He knew her Holiday wasn't going well as of now. Astoria had been authorized to stay at school, much to her delight, but Daphne couldn't, his father said he had good visit for her birthday. It ended up being the Malfoy family and she was so angry when they finally left that she had an argument with her father. He hoped it hadn't gone worse now. He got up and almost ran to Sirius room before bursting in.

"Sirius!" He shouted. Good thing the man wasn't sleeping yet, or was at least presentable.

"Harry? You look frightened, what's happening?" He asked.

"Its Daphne. She's crying and say that she needs to see me." Harry explained in a rushed tone, handing the paper to his godfather. He could see that she had added the word "_Please..._"and more tear marks continued to appear on it. "We have to find a way!"

Sirius seemed deep in thoughts before sighing. "I'd invite her here, but Dumbledore is the guardian of the secret. She can't apparate and we certainly can't go get her."

"I can use the Knight Bus." Said Harry.

"Not without an escort and I certainly can't go with you. You'll have to ask Tonks and you'll need and emergency Portkey." Explained Sirius.

Harry rapidly wrote an answer to Daphne, saying to hang on, that they were searching for a way to meet. She almost immediately gave them the solution.

_I'll take the Knight Bus for wherever you want. I'm not at home anymore already._

"Well, that could be a trap." Said Sirius. The look of pure rage his godson gave him at that statement made him shiver. "Don't look at me like that, I don't think it is, but it could. Anyway, if she left her house, Tonks can get her by apparition and take her somewhere else she would have taken you before. Lets talk to Tonks first."

Harry wrote the idea to Daphne after using the Tergo spell, wiping the tears marks at the same time. She simply said to hurry, and that's what they did. Tonks was in the living room, reading a bit when they found her. When she saw them, she had a smug smile toward Harry.

"Well, seems like I trained you well if you're already that energetic after Mad-Eye's treatment." She said.

"No time for that. Tonks, we need to set up something so I can see Daphne... Please." Asked Harry.

"I don't know, its not safe..." She contested.

"She's crying and I'm sure something big happened with her father." Pleaded the raven haired boy.

Tonks seemed to be thinking while Sirius explained his idea. She sighed but still didn't looked convinced. "I'm all for it in fact, but Dumbledore certainly wouldn't approve..." The desperate look on Harry's face finished to convince her. "Ok but it will have to be short. We need to go somewhere you would be protected but it can't be here."

"How about the Burrow?" Asked Sirius. "Its warded."

"Not without Molly's approval and she's at St. Mungos." Answered Tonks.

"My room." Said Harry simply, not liking it but it was the best way. "My room at my relatives. The blood wards will protect me and my relatives always left me alone for new year, taking Dudley to whatever party there is at the time and going somewhere to see the fireworks."

Tonks nodded at that. "Ok have your girlfriend at Diagon Alley, near the entrance for the Leaky Cauldron, I'll wait for her there. Have her search for an old lady with a green hat. She must just come to me and say her first name, that's all."

Harry wrote that on the piece of parchment and the answer was rushed back by Daphne saying she understood and that she'll be there in less than five minutes.

"Ok, lets go Harry, take that Portkey, just in case. Just put it on to activate it. It works only for one person at the time so don't try to bring her with you." Said Tonks.

Harry took the plain looking silver ring and put it in his pocket. Tonks took his arm once they were on the first step outside she apparated them directly in Harry's room in Privet Drive. She disparated right after and Harry was met with a great silence. Just to be on the safe side, he got out of the room silently and went downstairs to confirm that his relatives shoes were missing. Since really young, he would confirm he was alone that way, so he was now pretty certain he was. Going back up, he sat down on his bed and waited. Time didn't flow very fast and Harry ended up pacing the room after only thirty seconds of waiting. He stopped every ten seconds to look at the parchment and didn't see any change in the message or any new tear marks on it, so she either stopped crying or had put it in her pocket.

In the end, the crack from Tonks apparition made him jump. His wand shot out in his hand and pointed toward them, a reflex he got with Moody often sending spells by surprise anytime of the day, even while eating. His surprise didn't last long and he soon had his girlfriend hanging to his neck. Tonks pointed to the corridor and Harry understood she was leaving them alone but would stay close in case she was needed. Nodding his understanding, he hugged Daphne tightly.

"I missed you Daph..." Said Harry in a smooth voice.

"I missed you too Harry... Oh god what will I do!" She said, unlocking her shaking arms from around his neck.

Harry simply kissed her soundly, making her toes curl in her boots. It had the effect he wanted as she stopped shaking, calming herself a bit. When he broke the kiss, he got her on the bed, still holding her close by the shoulder and she clung to his shirt with balled fist. "Now...Tell me what's happening?"

"I... After the Malfoy left on my birthday, I had an argument with my father. He was telling me how the Malfoy were a good family, how I should try to be more seductive to their son and all... God Harry he was all but asking me to whore myself to them!" She said in a hard tone, sounding a bit desperate too. "Then this evening, Malfoy came by himself for a visit. Of course my dad let him enter without question and told him I was in my room. Draco just entered and... Well he tried to grope me."

"WHAT! Oh I'll KILL HIM!" Shouted Harry. That had the effect of getting Tonks in the room, alert and ready to fight. When she saw there was no threat, she left the room with a small sorry.

"That's not the worse... I fought back and actually managed to flee my room, but my father caught me and even after I told him what happened, he tried to push me back in my room, saying I should let him to help our family!" Said Daphne, starting again to cry.

"You didn't..." Started the black haired boy.

"No" Cut the equally black haired girl. "Of course I didn't let him. I kneed my dad in the jewels and fled the home. I happened to have some money and got on the Knight Bus but when he asked me where I wanted to go, I just told that anywhere else than here would be good, so he dropped me at the Leaky Cauldron. That's where I wrote to you."

"Damn! I hope you don't plan to go back, do you?" Asked Harry. "School start again in a bit less than two weeks."

"No, I won't go back." She said. "I know I can't go with you, I guess there is a Fidelius charm there right?"

"Yeah..." Said Harry, still enraged. He realized that he was holding her shoulder very hard so he released his grip a bit because he was certain she was hurting from it even if she didn't say anything.

"What will I do Harry?" Daphne had pleading eyes filled with tears. "I just ran from home and my father will search for me."

"I... I don't know. Lets ask Tonks. Right now other that killing Malfoy and your dad, I can't think of anything." Said Harry. When she nodded, he asked for the Auror to come in.

"Ready to go already?" She asked, a bit surprised.

"No... Look, she can't go back home, his father is trying to have her bed Malfoy. Isn't there a way to get her to... to... damn... Get her _there_ without needing _him_?" Harry was now standing with Daphne and holding her hand. She was gripping him tightly and the light pain he felt from it helped him think straight a bit.

Tonks knew he was talking about the headquarters and Dumbledore. "I'm sorry Harry. I wouldn't be able to even take her there, just like you can't say it. A Portkey would leave her a mile from there, completely disoriented. She could take a room at the Leaky Cauldron?"

"No... I was there before you came and I'm certain dad already know I was there from the Knight Bus conductor. I didn't ask him to keep quiet of my passage and he will certainly remember a girl in crying in pyjamas asking to go anywhere but here..." Said Daphne with a desperate tone.

It was only then that Harry realized she was indeed in deep green pyjama pants, boots over woollen socks and a simple dark blue t-shirt that was a bit too small and form fitting. Not disturbed at all, Tonks continued to think.

"Well we could have Dumbledore send us a paper with the secret on it... but I don't know how to reach him." Said the currently magenta haired woman.

"Do you know where he is?" Asked Harry.

"No... But an House Elf should be able to find him! Ok, I'm going back, I'll get Sirius to send Kreacher give a message to Dumbledore, explaining the situation and where we are currently. I'll be back shortly so you don't leave that house!" Said Tonks, now pretty authoritarian.

"We'll just go in the back of the house, the ward extend to the whole property." Said Harry.

Tonks nodded and was gone in a loud crack.

"That reminds me... where are we? It look like a muggle house." Asked Daphne, looking a bit more relaxed. It was contagious and got Harry also more calm.

"Yeah, it is. It my relatives home, where I need to get back on summers." Explained the boy. "Want a small tour?"

She nodded and Harry took her around the house. She saw that there was not a single picture of him or any indication that more than three people lived here. She did saw that the boy living here was pretty ugly. Looking at a family picture, she now understood when Harry said he wondered how a walrus coupled with a giraffe can give birth to a whale. She frowned when he passed the cupboard under the stairs. He had confessed in one of their talks that he had lived in it most of his life. She stopped in front of it but Harry said there was nothing to see other than dust and spiders. Seeing that he wasn't comfortable with even looking at it, she complied and they went outside to the gardens through the kitchen.

For a January night, it was pretty warm. Still, Harry took a blanket from an other cupboard in the kitchen and they sat on a bench.

"Look between this house and that one. It should start in a few seconds now..." Said Harry.

Daphne wondered what he was talking about, looking but not seeing anything other than Orion's constellation, when fireworks began to pop in the distance. They were pretty even if not as great as those made by wizards, but still, it gave a little romanticism to the situation.

"I almost always watched them from here every year. They never brought me to the hill where they go to watch them, so that's the best I had of them. Still, its not too far so its alright." He added while his girlfriend cuddled in his arms.

Daphne tenderly kissed his cheek before leaning her head on his shoulder, his own head resting on her's, and they watched the fireworks, waiting for words from Tonks.

"Thanks you Harry... For coming here for me, I know its always hard for you to come back here." Said Daphne.

"Its ok. Its not as hard as it was, thanks to you." Said the young boy. "You've listened to me like no one else and you helped me overcome most of my bad souvenirs from here. I feel better thanks to you, its the least I could do to help you when you needed it."

"Still... Thank you..." Daphne kissed him deeply to emphasize her words and then resumed her position on his shoulder, closing her eyes and forgetting her own bad experience, just enjoying that romantic moment with the boy of her dreams.

"Any time Daph. Happy New Year." Said Harry, also closing his eyes.

"Happy New Year, Harry." Replied Daphne in a drowsy tone.

It didn't take long for them to eventually fall asleep, now that the adrenaline of the moment left them. They didn't even wake up when a crack sounded in the kitchen and when Tonks came out to the back yard. She smiled at the sight and simply placed the blanker better, waiting for Dumbledore's answer, sitting in a chair near them and watching the remaining of the fireworks.

A second crack was heard in the house moments later and Tonks was instantly on guard, but relaxed when she saw Albus enter the kitchen. His look was hard and Tonks surprised herself by gulping. The man was intimidating, regardless of his age and appearance.

"I hope you have a good explanation Tonks for why Harry is now here and not at Grimmauld place." Asked the headmaster.

"Well..." Started Tonks in a low voice so not to wake up the children. She recounted the story while Dumbledore listened calmly. He seemed to have perked up a bit when she mentioned Harry had a girlfriend and had a hint of a smile trying to show up on his face while looking at the young couple cuddling on the bench. Having finished and seeing the old wizard look at the two youngster, she spoke up, wishing to keep his attention away from the fact they took a big risk. "They are indeed cute together."

"I can't deny that claim. It's a shame that Miss. Greengrass had to live that. I must say I am surprised of their relationship." Said Dumbledore.

"So were everyone that learned of it." Said Tonks. "She seems like a good girl and you can't fake his expression when he saw her. They care deeply for each other, its obvious."

"Maybe..." Said the old man before turning back to the main topic. "I am still not happy that he left Grimmauld place."

"What would you have us do then?" Asked Tonks, becoming a bit angry herself. "You imagine what would have happened to her if we didn't act? She was stuck somewhere her father would have got her back easily and brought back so Malfoy could have his way, just so he could get more points with the family!"

"I didn't say it wasn't a good thing in the end, but I'm still not happy of the risk you took. It could have been a trap." Said Dumbledore.

"That's why I brought them here separately without telling her where we where going. The place is supposed to be heavily warded, even more so than Grimmauld place." Countered the Auror.

"Yes, the place chosen was a good idea. The question now is what will we do with her?" Dumbledore was now pacing slowly in front of the kids. He saw from the corner of his eye that Harry wasn't sleeping anymore, just pretending to be but that Daphne was still sound asleep.

"Can't we bring her to the headquarters?" Asked Tonks.

"I would prefer to simply return her to Hogwarts." Said the headmaster with a tone of finality.

At that, Harry's head lifted from its resting place and his eyes opened. "No. She can't. Umbridge will have her returned to her father the moment he ask for it."

"You're awake Harry?" Asked Tonks, a bit startled.

"Since a few minutes I'm afraid." said Dumbledore. "Harry, she is still underage and her father still holds the authority to summon her back if he ask."

"So you'll just hand her back to the person that is willing to sell her to the Malfoys?" Harry was now very angry and had Daphne woken with his voice picking up in volume. When she saw Dumbledore and Tonks, she blinked and instinctively covered herself up more with the blanket.

"Harry... I never said that, but I can't..." Started the now conflicted wizard. He didn't look like it, he still had his strong and intimidating look, but inside he was struggling to find a compromise.

"Yes you can. You just have to say it, and we'll be able to go back there together and she'll be safe. Don't include her in the meetings if you want, she won't be able to tell the secret anyway because of the Fidelius." Said Harry.

"Sorry Harry, but she must return to Hogwarts. There is only less than two weeks remaining and I doubt her father would try to get her back now." Said Dumbledore.

"Yes he will, professor." Countered Daphne. "He is using me to try and bind our family to the Malfoys by forcing me on their son. He will expect me to go back to Hogwarts and I'm certain he already asked Umbridge to send me back if I ever place a foot there."

Harry saw the headmaster shake negatively his head. At that statement, something broke inside of Harry, something he thought was unbreakable but it did. He was starting to lose faith in the aged headmaster that he saw like a grand-father figure. If he wasn't willing to even try to protect Daphne, Harry felt his ways might differ from his. If at least he was forthcoming enough to tell him why he couldn't do things, it might be different, but this year was certainly not a turning point in that way. In fact, Dumbledore was even more secretive now that Harry was aware of the Order of the Phoenix, like the secret was big enough to comfort him and allowed him to not say anything more now. The image of the caring grand-father figure was starting to fade away. What he saw appear instead was the image of a chess-master carefully moving his pieces, having a clear strategy in mind and using manipulation and sacrifice so he didn't have to modify it. One thing he learned while playing chess with Ron was that sticking to one strategy and stubbornly trying to apply it instead of adapting when something got in the way was a beginner's error.

On his side, Dumbledore was heavily conflicted but couldn't think of an other way to handle things. By still being under the authority of a Death Eater, letting her in the headquarters would be an error. "For the Greater Good" he thought but he was starting to hate his own motto. What came next struck him like a heavy punch.

"If that's how it is... We'll just rent a room in a muggle hotel or something, no wards but he'll never search us there. I'm not going back without her. And no, I'm not against fighting for it. The first spell cast in here will bring much unwanted attention to us as we're somewhere no magic should be used, around two underage wizards." Said Harry, his wand already out and now standing.

Even Daphne was surprised by the outburst while Tonks was now smiling in addition to her surprise. Dumbledore was dumbstruck and looked at his prized pupil standing against him for the first time and bringing him an ultimatum with two bad results at the end. That was when the old man realized that Harry had grown up and started to chuckle at the sight.

"You look so much like your father like that." He said with a smile. "I refused that he joins the Order at the time while Lily was a member. He threatened to start his own group with Sirius, Remus and Peter, a group designed to play pranks against the Order until they were accepted in. He even regaled me with a few ideas that were pretty imaginative."

Harry stumbled a bit when he heard that but kept his wand toward the flowerpot. That was something he didn't knew about his dad, probably Dumbledore being the only one to know in fact. That had Harry wonder how many things the man could tell about his parents and he fought the urge to start and ask questions. At the same time he was even more angered that Dumbledore never talked to him about them. Daphne was still sitting but was holding his other hand like she feared he would disappear if she let go. Harry felt a squeeze from her hand and that helped him focus on the present moment. He just stood his ground, looking at Albus with the most fearless look he could do. Slowly, he saw resignation in Dumbledore's eyes.

"Alright... You give me no choice it seems as I have to chose between a problem and a bigger, much more immediate problem." At those words, the headmaster extended his arm for one of them to grab it while Tonks smiled widely. "If miss Greengrass would please take my arm, I'll take her to Grimmauld Place. Harry will get back with Miss. Tonks."

"No, Professor. I'll go with you." Said Harry. Dumbledore looked hurt by the obvious show of mistrust but Harry didn't let it get to him. Albus seemed to ponder a few seconds before nodding from his head. He would have brought her to Grimmauld Place, he resigned himself in the knowledge Harry would probably back his words if he decided to go against him, but he hoped he would not need to tell her the address.

"Alright Harry. Miss. Greengrass, the Headquarter of the Order of the Phoenix is at 12 Grimmauld Place. Harry, please take my arm as I think your relative will be back soon, the fireworks ended long ago now."

Harry took Dumbledore's arm while he saw Tonks disparate with Daphne. Now that he wasn't over-worried by Daphne's message, he actually felt the apparition displeasing feeling of being sucked through a long water hose. They apparated directly on the front door steps just when he saw Tonks and Daphne opening the door.

"Miss. Greengrass can share the room with Miss. Granger and Miss. Weasley. I wish you a happy new year." Said Dumbledore. He gave a last look to Harry and saw in his eyes that he had lost a lot of trust from the child that meant so much to him and everybody. Gaining it back would be hard and Dumbledore felt like it wouldn't get better soon as he will have to tell him the truth shortly. But before that he needed to learn how to block his mind from his connection with the Dark Lord. It seemed a discussion with Severus was at hand.

"I'm so sorry for you Daphne!" Said Hermione. The elder Greengrass had just finished telling her story to the two girls. They had to wake them as she was to sleep in that room. Tonks had shrunk an unused bed from an other room and installed it in the room.

"Its ok... I'm free from it right now and that's all I needed." Daphne started to look around, a puzzling look on her face.

Harry knew she wanted to ask loads of questions on the place and what was the Order that Dumbledore had talked about, but she held her tongue. Harry thought that if she was planning to betray them, she'd try to get more information. She was biting her lower lip to physically restrain herself and Harry couldn't help but blush at the sight as he thought she was even sexier doing that. It didn't help that he was now realizing that her t-shirt was pretty stretch and that he could actually tell she wasn't wearing a bra. He looked away and missed the knowing smile from Hermione while Daphne's cheeks reddened. Ginny's reaction was more neutral looking while in fact she was pretty jealous of the Slytherin girl's body and of course relation with Harry.

"Well, I'll go sleep." Said boy told them while getting up. "Its Tonks turn tomorrow and I doubt she'll go easy on us just because we were up late, regardless of the reason."

Daphne laughed a bit nervously. Harry had indeed told her about their training program and how Tonks was the worst slave driver of the world. She secretly started to take runs around the domain in the mornings so it would be a softer integration to active physical training. It also served to make her less often at home and found herself pushing her body more so she'd be away longer and have an excuse to pass a long time in the shower and avoid her father. Still, she was anxious of getting her first workout from the metamorphomagus.

After a deep good-night kiss from her boyfriend, she sank under her blankets and left out a relieved sigh, finally feeling safe.

On his way to his room, Harry was stopped by Sirius.

"Well, you didn't lie about her being bloody sexy." He said with a prideful grin. At Harry's blush, he couldn't help but laugh. "I saw her from the kitchen but decided to leave her alone for now. Before you go see Tonks tomorrow though, I'd like to speak to her."

"Not without me. She's already nervous enough as it is, lets not add to it with a one on one interrogatory." Said Harry with a strict voice that surprised Sirius a bit.

"Don't worry, I was of course intending to have you there also. Anyway, call it my animal instinct or what you want, but I have the feeling she's a good girl, don't worry. Its just that you've had enough of hurt in your life and I prefer to be safe than sorry." Sirius told his godson. "It'll be just some small talk and a few serious questions, nothing bad I promise."

"Ok then..." Said Harry. "I like her a lot, I don't want anything bad to happen to her."

"Nothing will, you'll make sure of it." Said the adult with a smile.

Harry had a determined look on his face while he glanced a the girl's door.

"You can bet on that."


	9. Chapter 9

Next morning came up and Harry knew it wouldn't be all that pleasant. He informed Ron of the situation when he got back, the red headed boy waking up when he heard the door. If he had been much more accepting of Daphne for a while, he still wasn't looking all that happy to have the Slytherin girl here. He did soften a lot when he heard what happened but Harry could see his best friend wasn't fully convinced of her story.

Harry got out of the room pretty late in his mind. Tonks and Moody were going to get Molly at St. Mungo, if it hadn't been the case they would already be sick of running up and down the stairs of the basement at this hour. He went and knocked on the girls door, being invited to enter immediately. He took a peek, just to be sure they were decent as they might have though it was Tonks coming, but the twins were already there it seemed.

The twins were very happy to have the Ice Queen here. They were always having fun by venerating her, calling her "Majesty" or "Lady Ice", today wasn't an exception. Daphne would play along more often than not, some time even sending minor hexes at them just for kicks when they touched her shoulder or arm, simply because she knew that was exactly what they were waiting for. Masochists? No, just crazy.

By seeing her interactions with others in D.A. meetings, Harry had realized that she didn't hex people that much when somebody touched her. As long as you didn't touch her some place indecent or took her by complete surprise, it was ok. She still twitched a bit when it was somebody she wasn't that much comfortable and could still over react when she was in a bad mood, but Harry saw that the Frost-Bite was mostly exaggerated. He found it sad that she was having trouble being comfortable around people, but at the same time, it made himself feel that much more special that she was comfortable with him as much as she was.

"You ok Harry?" Asked Daphne. He had sat on her bed while she still had her legs under the blanket and had zoned out while thinking on his girlfriend reputation.

"Oh yeah, sorry, I might not be as awake as I thought." Which was true as he yawned just after saying that.

"You were so anxious about seeing me that you couldn't sleep anymore?" Asked the beauty near him.

"Why do you think its because of you?" Returned Harry with a small playful smile.

"Because its always because of me." Daphne was now running a finger on his arm while talking in a sultry voice.

"So true..." Conceded Harry before kissing her softly.

At the same time, Ron entered and rolled his eyes at the sight. He still heard what they said so he couldn't help himself. "You are so whipped, Harry."

"And you are jealous." Retorted the Boy-Who-Is-Whipped.

That had everyone laughing for a few seconds.

"I don't know if I'm supposed to find it funny that you didn't deny the statement or mad because you said I was jealous." Said Ron with a smile.

"Both is ok." Said Ginny. "As both statements are true also. At least Harry assume it."

"Its not like I have to try much also." Said Daphne, poking her boyfriend's ribs.

"Well, just put that t-shirt back to its original size and you'll have him dancing in the palm of your hand." Said Hermione while pointing toward her friend bust.

That had the couple blush a bit while Daphne unconsciously lifted the sheets more in front of her, enough to cover her up to the shoulder. She had enlarged the t-shirt after Harry had left. It wasn't really that comfortable but while she was at home, it had been at hand when she got out of the shower. She just couldn't do magic while at home so she endured its size until now. An other round of laughter erupted at the couple's embarrassment.

The group of children – it wasn't possible to see the twins as adults even if they technically were – got back into idle chatter. Harry and Daphne weren't participating much as Harry had sat side by side with his girlfriend, their back on the wall and their legs outstretched on the bed. Harry stayed over the sheet though, not wanting to give a reason to tease them to Ron or even Hermione, who was showing more and more that she could have a witty mind. Still, he held her by the shoulder and his other hand was joined with hers on his leg, effectively keeping her close and a bit leaned on him.

"Say, Harry..." She started, resting her head on his shoulder.

"Hm?" He asked.

"Do you thing we could stop hiding?" Daphne seemed a bit nervous about asking that.

Harry seemed a bit taken aback by the question. He thought about it and found wonderful the idea of being able to be with her when he wanted at school. But at the same time, he knew they would be the target of whispers and remarks from others that wouldn't be as supportive as their friends, mainly Malfoy and his clowns. Worse, as much as he would love the expression Malfoy would get from seeing her with him, he knew it could become really bad. Harry didn't mind much, he was used to mockery and whispers, even attacks from Malfoy didn't bother him, but he wanted to protect Daphne.

"I don't know... I'd love it in fact. There would be a lot of reaction from the other students, that it doesn't really matter, but... Malfoy is never going to let it go easily, especially now that he knows he have your father approval and being with me might fuel up his actions... I don't want anything to happen to you." He said, visibly conflicted.

"I don't care... I fled my house it won't change much. In fact, I'm certain Malfoy with take every opportunity to try and finish what he started yesterday. Being with you more might in fact be a good thing." Daphne had pleading eyes while talking, they were glistering a bit with growing tears. From fear or desperation, Harry didn't know, but he couldn't say no to these eyes.

"Ok then. If Malfoy become too much to handle, you can still sleep in the Room of Requirement, I'll lend you my invisibility cloak too." Said Harry.

"I'm going to be fine Harry. I still have Tracey and Astoria with me." She said before capturing his lips with hers.

That was the time Molly decided to barge in, obviously returned from the hospital. "All right kids, breakfast is waiting for... WHO ARE YOU!"

The couple quickly ended the kiss before looking at the matriarch Weasley in the door frame, pointing a finger at Daphne.

"Well, mom, after seeing them kiss, I guess its obvious... Didn't Tonks tell you?" Said Ron.

"Tell me what? She was asked on an other last minute mission so she wasn't part of my escort." Asked the shocked and strangely angry woman.

Harry was flabbergast at that, not understanding why she seemed angry that he had a girlfriend. In fact, he had imagined the scene as her giving him a bone crushing hug, saying how she was happy for him or something like that. He even thought she would be suspicious when she learned her origins and her house in Hogwarts, but not angry like that.

"Tonks brought her yesterday night after some bad things happened at her house. Daphne is Harry's girlfriend since a bit now." Explained Ginny. She stayed vague voluntarily and was probably the only one that knew why her mother was angry. Molly had been so happy when she learned her daughter liked Harry and always tried to give her advices, or tell her things she learned on Harry. She knew her mother was trying to set them up and didn't care at the time, but since she has actively been trying to forget about him in a romantic way, she hated it.

"I never knew that!" Said Mrs. Weasley, still looking at Daphne with a bit of revulsion, though she did soften a lot.

Harry looked at Daphne with sorry eyes. She seemed kind of frightened and disillusioned. Harry had told her about Mrs. Weasley and the image she was showing wasn't up to the standards Harry had mentioned about her. He did mention how she was strict but loving, sometime passionate about things but she couldn't understand her reaction.

"Come on mom." Said Fred.

"You're frightening her." Continued George. That statement made Daphne redden and retract a bit in Harry's arm while pulling the sheet as much as she could with somebody on top of it.

"Oh... Ehm... Sorry... I was just surprised that's all..." Said Mrs. Weasley, realizing she wasn't giving a good first impression on the girl.

Daphne straightened up at that, seeing the imposing woman settle down more. "Its ok... I know you see Harry as one of your son and it must have been surprising to walk in on me, a stranger, kissing him..."

"Well... Yes, it did surprise me a lot... I thought he..." She glanced at Ginny who gave her the big eyes to try and have her mother understand she mustn't finish that phrase. She must have got the message or simply understood herself what she was going to say as she just added. "...never mind."

Ginny sighed with relieve, as did the twins and Hermione who seemed to have understood where she was going too.

"Well. Breakfast is waiting for you. I went at it since I arrived and I thought as your training was cancelled for today, you might want to visit Arthur. He looks much better now even if he's still..." She let it hang, everybody understanding that he was still in the coma. "We'll leave after that... You can of course come with us dear." She finished, looking at Daphne for the invitation.

Daphne wasn't sure if she should but a squeeze from Harry convinced her. In fact, Mrs. Weasler was still a bit cold with her, but that had to be expected, she just arrived. When she nodded, the woman smiled a bit shyly to her before leaving the room.

"Well I don't know about you, but I'm certain Tonks will work us out three times harder next time if she learns we at least didn't take a small run in the basement and the stairs." Said Ron. A series of approving nods followed after that and Harry kissed his girlfriend before leaving with Ron to put on his training clothes.

"I'm sorry about my mum..." Said Ginny, looking a bit ashamed.

"Its ok... I must really have surprised her." Said Daphne with a smile.

"No... I mean yes, you did, but the reason she looked angry was because she always thought I'd end up with Harry..." The red headed girl explained.

"Oh... And you..." Started the Slytherin, the ambiance becoming a bit awkward.

"Yes, I did like him... still like him in fact, but he only sees me like his little sister." Said Ginny. Hermione was trying to look like she wasn't listening, as if she was adamantly concentrated on dressing up, but couldn't fake much after she was fully dressed and ready.

"I'm sorry... I didn't knew..." Said Daphne, not really sure what to say.

"Don't be." Said Ginny. "Would you still have tried to get him if you knew?"

Daphne didn't really had to think about the answer but the question left her speechless for a few seconds. "...Yes. I wouldn't call it love yet, but I feel its more than just a crush."

Ginny smiled at that. Not a happy smile really, more like an acknowledging smile. "Then really, don't be sorry for me. It wasn't meant to be and I'll live. I know its a silly crush I have for the Boy-Who-Lived, the Golden-Boy, the one that saved my life in my first year. Its just that it ruled a big part of my life and my mother fuelled that with her encouragements. I don't deserve him."

Daphne just got up and hugged the fourteen year old girl. "Don't say that. You're still a good girl, you just didn't like him for the good reasons. You'll find a boy that is made for you and you'll be happy, you deserve that!"

Ginny started to cry at that, then cursed herself for every drop of the salty liquid leaving her eyes. Why was she crying? It has been a long time since she felt that good as it was like a heavy weight lifted from her heart in fact, there was no reason to cry. No, it didn't remove her feelings for Harry, but that conversation with Daphne eased an ache in her heart and she felt like she would be able to really get back to her cheery self, not just act it.

"Well, look at me being all emotive!" Said Ginny. The other two girls laughed at that. "I'm happy for you two Daphne. I can see the good you do him and that makes me glad he met you."

Daphne smiled widely, thinking it was weird how she could be only a few months older than her sister yet so much mature. Maybe it was the advantage of entering Hogwarts a year earlier by being 11 years old by September 1rst, or maybe she simply had to with six brother. Probably a combination of the two.

Ginny just stripped from her pyjamas and stared at herself in a mirror, wearing only her bright red knickers. She certainly was attractive. She was small, with a small frame, much the contrary of her mother, and while her B cup bosom couldn't compare to Daphne's C, or certainly not Tracey's D cup size, she was proud of her figure. Yeah, she was pretty, she didn't have to envy Daphne or Susan or any other girl, she was a petite girl and lots of boys liked petite girls. She didn't knew why she had to confirm that to herself, maybe just so she was sure it wasn't because Harry wasn't attracted to her, but it helped get back her confidence.

"I gotta find myself a boy. Michael was an arse-hole but damn I miss snogging!"

* * *

><p>A few minutes later, the girls finally got down for breakfast. Daphne was lent clothes from Hermione that she sized to fit her with magic as she was taller and much bustier than the bookworm, but closer to her than Ginny. Harry couldn't help but see how much Ginny looked livelier. He looked quizzically at Daphne who just shook no with her head from behind the ginger girl. Leaving it at that, he got back to his bacon. It wasn't good to eat too much before running but running on an empty stomach wasn't good either.<p>

"When are we leaving exactly? We'd like to train a bit so Tonks don't accuse us of slacking." Asked Ron.

"We have to wait for Alastor and Remus dear. I just got the message they wouldn't be there before noon so we have time." Answered Molly.

Harry ate a bit, just enough in fact to not feel hungry, but certainly not enough to Molly's satisfaction. "Harry, with all that running and fighting, you need more energy, you should eat more!"

"I'll eat more after the exercise, Tonks was clear that its not good to run just after eating. She told us to eat just enough to not starve, wait an hour or so, then exercise." He looked at Ron who seemed to have forgotten that exact statement from their trainer as he just stopped munching a mouthful of a mix of toast, bacon and eggs, having big eyes as he just remembered it.

Gulping, the boy looked nervous. "Don't tell her... please..."

Everybody around the table laughed, mainly at Ron's antics but Daphne had a sort of nervous laugh. She had found Tonks to look pretty easygoing when she met her the day before, but what Harry had told her over the holidays and the reactions the other had when speaking about her training program made her anxious about being part of it.

"Don't worry, it'll be fine." Said Harry. He saw how nervous she looked so he tried to reassure her. "She's not mean, just... ehm... pushing us a lot with some harsh words... In the end, I never felt so good in my life."

"Y-yeah... I'm... sure of it..." Said Daphne.

"So... Daphne was it?" Asked Molly in a polite tone. "You're in Harry's year?"

Daphne was going to answer but they got interrupted by a voice coming from the corridor that was too loud for a certain portrait. "Oh wait for me for that discussion! Crap!"

The house was now filled with insults about blood traitors and Mudbloods coming from the portrait of Mrs. Black that Sirius's voice woke up. At that thought, Harry's eyes bulged so much it frightened Daphne a bit.

"Crap!" He imitated his godfather.

"Harry! Watch your words!" Said Molly in a strict tone.

"Sorry Mrs. Weasley, but I forgot to tell Daphne about Sirius!" Said Harry. At that statement, everybody around the table facepalmed.

"Sirius? Sirius Black? What do you have to tell me about him?" Asked Daphne, intrigued.

"He's..." But Harry was cut by said person.

"Damn woman won't shut the hell up..." Said before entering the kitchen. Upon seeing everybody watch him with either a semi-panicked look – for every one but Daphne – and a totally freaked out look – for Daphne this time, he just pointed at himself, looking around the table. "Does I have something horrible on my face?"

"Please don't scream or shoot a spell or anything!" Said Harry very fast to Daphne, actually holding her wand hand with his firmly.

"B-b-b-b-but its Sirius Black!" She whispered very loudly.

"Pup... Don't tell me she doesn't know?" Asked Sirius.

"Well... First time I had to talk about you, I didn't say your name because I didn't knew her much yet and... well... After that I just didn't think about it and the subject never came up." Explained Harry. He felt Daphne slide a bit away from him but he gave her a calming look.

"Well I'll tell her then..." Said Sirius, getting a mischievous smile before turning to a serious, hard look. "Miss Greengrass... If you hurt my godson I'm gonna hurt you!"

At that Daphne did scream before everyone around the table except Molly and Daphne sent a different spell at the man. It was a good combination to have a double tickling charm combined with a bodybind curse. Add to that three Expeliarmus to send him backward and wandless and you have one of the most efficient torture in the world.

"THAT WAS NOT FUNNY SIRIUS!" Harry shouted over the yelling portrait in the hall. Harry could see that the man was petrified with a smug smile on his face. This time it was Molly that got up to stop the yelling from Mrs. Black.

Turning to Daphne, he saw her cowering on the bench. "He... He's your godfather that you told me about? The one having SOME trouble with law so you couldn't tell me his name?"

"Ok... Sirius is innocent, he never betrayed my parents, never killed Peter Pettygrew and never killed a street full of muggles. He was never tried for the crimes, he just never denied it because he was too shocked, laughing like mad instead, breaking down mentally completely. He is an idiot though and he will pay for what he just did, but he was messing with you just now." Explained Harry. He looked as Daphne took this information and processed it.

"How are you so sure of it?" She asked.

"Pettigrew is an animagus, a rat." Said Harry. His face became dark and Daphne knew right away that he was being completely serious. "Silly thing, it was Ron's rat and it was the reason Sirius came to our school in third year. After a series of events, we actually had Pettigrew in our hands and got the real story that confirmed us that Sirius was innocent and that the bastard – Peter that is – was the real culprit for everything Sirius was blamed for. Lupin was with us too. In the end, he was able to escape while we were trying to get him to justice so Sirius would be vindicated. He's also the one that made the ritual to resurrect Voldemort."

Daphne took that pretty well all things considered. "Why didn't you tell me before? Is it also a secret under the Fidelius?"

"No... I seriously didn't think about it." Said Harry, looking really sorry and mad at himself. "The only time we spoke of my godfather was that first evening we were alone together, I didn't know you that much at the time..."

"Didn't you tell her about our trainings?" Asked Ron.

"Yeah, I told her Moody and Tonks were slave drivers, but that "the other two" were ok." Said Harry, feeling a bit irritated now.

"You are an idiot, you know that, do you?" Said Hermione. "How could you forget something so important when you brought her into his house?"

"I know I'm an idiot, yeah." Said Harry. His irritation flared at that. "But do you think I had time to think about that yesterday? I was worried sick!"

Hermione was taken aback by the outburst and didn't make any comment. She could tell that he was mostly angry toward himself about forgetting something that was so important but she felt she didn't deserve to be the target of his irritation.

"Its ok..." Said Daphne, taking Harry's hand to calm him down. She knew Hermione just wanted to make a point but she should know that it wasn't good to push Harry when he felt bad about himself. "I'm not mad after you Harry. But if you have some other shocking secret I should know, like Severus being your actual uncle or that you are in fact a time traveller, please don't wait at the last minute."

Harry looked so shocked that all his frustration seemed to wash away in one go. "How can you even suggest me being related to that overgrown bat?"

"So the time traveller isn't event the most improbable thing on your mind?" Said Daphne, happy to see that her move worked good and that Harry wasn't mad anymore. She saw him smile when realization hit him.

"How can you always deflate me so easily?" He asked.

"Must be a gift from the gods." Daphne shrugged.

"Ow... That hurt you know?" Said Sirius after he was released by Hermione. "But its a good idea to combine the tickling charm with the bodybind curse."

Daphne swiftly sent those two specific spells in row at the one she still though was a mass murderer few minutes before. When the other looked at her strangely, she simply said : "What? He scared me and I wasn't fast enough for the first round of hexes, I still wanted my part in it. Still, that combination will certainly become one of my favorite Frost-Bite."

Harry and the others laughed at the statement. Daphne released Sirius who got up and walked to Harry. "Pup... That girl is perfect, don't let her go!"

"I don't plan on it." Said the raven haired boy while looking to the equally dark haired girl in the eyes. He gave a little squeeze with his hand while the Lord Black took a seat.

Molly came back from shutting off Mrs. Black and took back her seat. "So... Now that its out of the way... Would you mind talking about you dear?"

Daphne shifted on her seat but received a comforting squeeze from Harry's hand. "Well, as you may know, I'm in Harry's year, in Slytherin."

"You're in Slytherin?" Asked Molly with big eyes.

"Well ehm... Yes, though we – that means me and very few peoples – aren't thinking like most of our house." The Slytherin girl looked nervous now and moved herself a bit closer to Harry on the bench.

"What do you mean? I'm sorry but Slytherin doesn't have a good reputation." Said Sirius, Harry could tell he wasn't asking that because he really wanted to know, he already knew, he just wanted to hear her answer.

"I don't believe in blood supremacy, my best friend is Half-blood and her father was a Gryffindor. Also, as much as I may be ambitious in a way, I don't feel like its good to push others down to reach your goal." Explained Daphne.

"You're still pretty good at manipulation." Said Ron. It wasn't an accusation, simply a fact but it did make Molly frown.

"Not that much. Most of our reputation come from Tracey in fact. She's manipulative mainly for fun, yet never use her "talent", if can say that, to shun somebody or in a bad way. We're more like manipulating events in our favor, not people themselves... though Tracey do like to have fun using it to prank a bit." She rolled her eyes when thinking about her best friend.

"How did you start to like Harry?" Asked Molly.

Daphne knew the question would come so it was easy to answer. "I was intrigued at first. I kept hearing the legends, the rumors and all that about Harry and I wanted to know if any of it was true. By listening on him and his friends talk in herbology, I learned a lot. I know its not the most noble way to learn about somebody but... there's a reason I'm not in Gryffindor, which also prevented me from really talking to him. I was afraid of what my house would say at first, then it became a fear of rejection from him. Anyway, I learned of the real Harry. I did get a few confirmations about a few rumors, but it didn't interest me anymore. I found a lot more interest in the Harry that just wanted to be normal and have a regular life. That he was brave and noble was just a bonus. That's when I started to wish I could speak to him, but couldn't because I was afraid of reactions from the others and mostly from him. It became a small crush, then I became aware that it was more when I felt so worried about him at the first task of the Tournament. Then this year, a series of fortunate events got us talking and getting to know each other more. Even more fortunate and hazardous events got us confessing to each other at the end of November."

The look she gave him was one he never experienced. It was caring and very deep. That one look made him feel all mushy inside and he couldn't help himself but smile stupidly.

"Well... That explains a lot." Said Sirius. "Your feelings do look genuine, that's for sure... Unfortunately, my next question won't be about a subject as pleasant."

"Its ok, I know they are necessary." Replied Daphne. "You want to make sure I'm not gonna go tell anything to my father, right?"

"Who is her father?" Asked Molly, not sure she wanted to know the answer in fact.

Sirius ignored Molly's question and simply answered to Daphne. "No. I got the feeling that you are dependable, that I can trust you. But your father is a Death Eater..." Sirius paused to make sure the Weasley matriarch wouldn't do anything stupid but all she did was look coldly at Daphne. She didn't knew the full story of what happened to the girl last night and it was one of the things that got Sirius trusting her. "I want to know if he could get you on the Imperius, use Veritaserum or anything that would put us in danger, mainly Harry."

Daphne's head hung low. "I wouldn't put it past him to do something to me so he can get information for the Dark Lord. I plan on being extra careful from now on. And no, I don't plan on going back home, ever. I'm sorry if I'm not a noble, brave Gryffindor, I'm a Slytherin and that mean I does have a bit of selfishness in me. I... I just want to be with Harry and be safe from my father. So I hope you'll accept me at least until I'm seventeen, so that I'm free of him really."

"As if I'd throw you out. It might be the Headquarter for the Order, but its also my house." Said Sirius, looking serious. "You are an invited guest of the Most Ancient and Noble House of Black. As the Head of the house, I give you my protection for as long as you need it. Any attack against you, is an attack against me." He extended his hand in a very formal way, something that looked very misplaced about him.

Harry was smiling, as did Hermione, but every Weasley and even Daphne were simply shocked.

"T-Thank you, Lord Black. As the current Heiress of the Noble house of Greengrass, I humbly accept your invitation and protection. Shall your house need any assistance in any way, I will gladly propose my service as a repayment of the immense debt I have toward you. Shall I ever willingly betray your trust, your promise will be void and I will surrender you my life." Concluded Daphhe before shaking hand with Sirius. The seriousness in their look as much as the shocked expression of the Weasley confirmed Harry that it was more than just a simple deal between them. The light-blue halo that surrounded their hands pushed him to ask the question.

"What just happened?" He asked.

"By invoking his status as the Lord of the Most Ancient and Noble House of Black, his promise became a magical oath." Said Ginny. "He didn't request anything from her, he gave away freely his protection, no condition. If Daphne had simply took his hand without adding conditions, Sirius would have had no choice but protect her regardless of what she did. It was an obvious and overwhelming show of trust toward her."

Daphne had tears forming in her eyes. Sirius, seeing it, just took her in his arms, the way a father would do it for his daughter. "Thanks you..." Said the girl. "Thanks you for your trust, I won't disappoint you."

"I'm sure of it. Just take care of my godson." The Lord said. He finally released her and she just ran back in Harry's arms, snuggling in, planning to do a lot of that now that they would be able to show themselves together in public.

"What happens if you don't respect your oath?" Asked Harry, a bit worried.

"Its not a unbreakable vow. Its a promise over one's honor or its family." Explained Sirius. "Only a Head of House can make an Oath on the family's honor, she could only do it on her own honor."

"That doesn't tell me what will happen if she or you breaks it." He asked, still not relieved.

"Nothing much. The other person will know automatically and that person will lose her standing. Its something very serious in pure blood family, even more for the older ones like the Black." Explained Sirius.

"Its ok Harry." Said Daphne. "I don't plan to betray you and I already planned on helping you the best I can."

Silence fell on the room while people got back their composure, mainly Molly that just had an eye opener about the girl. She did put her life as penalty for betraying them, even if most people around the table didn't realize it. It was Ron that finally broke the silence. "Well... That's all good but... I think I'm gonna go run now. Anybody else coming?"

Looking at each others, the children shrugged as one and left the table.

Harry was hoping Daphne would be alright, it wasn't an easy situation for her. Still, she was currently smiling widely, a warm smile he didn't see often. It made him happy and he resolved to have her smile that way more often.


	10. Chapter 10

Training was light that day and most of them were surprised that Daphne could follow as easily as she was. Even Harry that was aware of her doing runs everyday didn't think she would in fact lead the group. It seemed like Daphne was already pretty in shape even before starting to train more seriously. It eventually brought a little taunt from Ron as he was passing him.

"Well Harry, running is a good way to tone a body. You must be happy that Daphne is gonna tone her arse even more with that!"

Ron laughed and picked up a bit of speed to distance himself from Harry in what he supposed was a very dramatic way, taunting then leaving before the other could respond. Problem was, he forgot Harry was a wizards and received a tripping hex in the legs. Falling flat on the floor, he felt his best friend step on him unceremoniously as if he was part of the floor. His brothers were less gentle as they stepped on him at the same time while he was trying to get up. Finally getting up, he started to run again.

"Totally worth it!" He told himself with a grin even though his face stung a bit at every motion from his lips.

In the end, Harry and him started to try and hex the other for fun a few times when they crossed, inevitably starting a game as every one would try to trip, stun or hex the others, trying to take them by surprise. Harry though that it certainly was a good exercise in fact. It would also benefit both their training with Tonks and Moody.

After a while of constant running, it was stretching then showering, alternating as there were only two in the house. Girls went first while the boys, plus Ginny that would be next, got to the kitchen to snatch a bite. They always let the girls go first as the boys would take that time to decide who were the next.

"So I'm finally gonna learn how you decide who goes first?" Asked Ginny while taking a bite from a piece of bread. She had left her place to Daphne, saying she was the one that ran the most, but it was also so she could see how the boys chose the order for the showering. She and Hermione always asked but they never told, so it became a sort of grand secret that they kept on taunting them about, well mostly the twins.

"Yes... You will finally be part of our Grand Secret!" Said Fred.

"But you must promise never to tell anyone!" Continued George with an over-dramatic tone.

"Lets just be done with it." Said Ron while rolling his eyes. "The girls shouldn't be too long. So who was it last time?"

"Me." Answered Harry. "So its Fred turn."

"Alright! And... Here we gooo!" Shouted Fred before flipping a sickle.

Ginny actually banged her head on the door frame at the sight while the boys decided on a side. After a few more flips, Fred shouted victory. George and Ron grunted while Harry just laughed at Ginny's antics who never stopped from banging her head on the house structure.

"So its Fred first, Harry second, then George and me as last." Said Ron. "How come I'm last so often?"

"You were first three times in a row last week." Countered Harry. "And I ended up last almost as often as you."

"After all that mystery, the serious look in your eyes when implying it, your insistence on how grandiose it was... you were only flipping a sickle?" The red headed girl said in a desperate voice.

"Well, we did have fun making you think we had some sort of epic way to decide on order but you were the first to start guessing it was something big, we just played along." Said George.

"I must say some of your ideas were interesting." Added Fred. "I particularly liked the one where we were doing a contest of the one to boil water fastest with an Incendio spell."

"I preferred Ginny's idea of the nastiest spell sent on Kreacher." Said Ron.

"I though the idea of us doing a free-for-all with the last one standing being the first, the other three chosen by the longest they were up, to be a real good idea." Said Harry.

"Nha! What is the point to use training to decide who goes in the shower first after we just finished training?" Said George.

At all that, Ginny just banged her head stronger on the wall. "...Ow..."

A bit later, they were all dressed in muggle fashion to go and visit St. Mungo. Even after getting the clothes to her size with magic, Daphne didn't seemed much at ease in them. Hermione though she must not have wore muggle clothes a lot. A lot of wizard clothing could compare to muggle, but the Nobles families usually kept the robes even if the style differed a lot.

"Father never let me get muggle clothing or anything close... In fact, I can't remember a time where I wore something else than a wizard robe in public..." Said the Slytherin girl while looking in a mirror to herself. She had a very light blue jumper and a pair of jeans on.

"You did wear your pyjama in the Knight bus" Said Ginny with a grin.

"Yeah well... It wasn't my fault. These... jeans was it? Aren't they a bit too tight?" Asked Daphne while passing a hand on her form fitting pair of dark blue jeans.

"They're meant to be. Girls usually wear them as tight as they can." Said Hermione. "I prefer not too tight but enough to remain form fitting."

"Why? Its not the most comfortable even if its not so bad, but tighter would stop my blood from running." Said Daphne that was contemplating the silhouette it gave her.

"Well... Its how the mode is in the muggle world. The mode right now is to more form fitting clothes that brings out the girl's curves." Said Hermione while handing her friend a pair of black sneakers that gave Daphne the big eyes. She wasn't following mode that much, mainly as she doesn't pass the majority of her time in the muggle world.

"Its sexier." Resumed Ginny with a smirk. "You might have enlarged your jumper a bit too much to fit your jeans, its a bit baggy."

"You thing so?" Daphne asked while struggling to lace her shoes. "Can't you have shoes that don't need laces? And you really wear these type of foot-wear even when you're not running?"

"We're talking about muggles Daph, forget magic fitting on the foot. In fact, most wizard can't buy them either, muggle type of shoes and boots are cheaper." Said the Weasley girl while looking at Hermione showing the way to lace shoes. She couldn't help but giggle at the sight of the grown up girl being thought how to lace shoes. "And yes, sneakers and running shoes are frequent in muggle world. Seriously, most people wear muggle clothing under their robes at school, aren't you used to it?"

"Not that much, I don't pay attention to it. I always wear boots, lighter when its hot. These types of shoes are only for running normally, they don't support the ankle at all. The shirts and t-shirts ok, I have things like that for under my robes, same thing for pants. But these jeans, that material really isn't something I ever wore, they feel heavy." Explained Daphne. She did shrink back the jumper at the same time to a more normal size that hung nicely to her.

"Well, you really are from a high class family, only family like yours keep the old style that way." Said Ginny. "Wizard evolved from the cloak and robes. The younger at least did, I always have to tell my mom what to wear so she doesn't look strange to muggles."

Daphne chuckled a bit at it. "Yeah, father thinks we should all go back to the old ways so I was not allowed to follow the other kids in their interests..."

The two other girls looked at Daphne with a sad look. The dark haired girl seemed a bit down when explaining her lack of knowledge of the muggle style. She had mentioned before that she hoped she was allowed to live like a normal girl instead of being constantly reminded that she was to be better than the others and that evolution was bad.

"Don't worry Daph." Said Ginny with a growing smile.

"We'll teach you all you need to know." Continued Hermione.

"Thanks you two, I really appreciate it." Looking back at herself in the mirror, she smiled. "You think Harry will like my look?"

Two analytic pairs of girls eyes scanned every curves that were showing, just enough to be inviting but not too much to be indecent.

"I'll take a mop I think." Said Ginny while going for the door. "He's sure to drool all the way to St. Mungo, especially if you walk in front of him."

* * *

><p><p>

The visit to St. Mungo was pretty standard. Arthur didn't seemed closer to wake up but Molly kept staring at him as if he'd wake up any seconds from now. The rest of the family wasn't as optimistic as her, Ron even saying he doubted his dad would wake up before they went back to school. Charlie and Bill that came on the weekends were the ones looking the most like their mother. Harry could understand, their jobs prevented them from coming to live at Grimmauld place while waiting for their father to wake up so they could only come when they were on weekends, it was normal for them to hope more than the other. They stayed at the hospital and slept in some magical hotel near the hospital that serve those families that live too far to even use apparition or floo network. St. Mungo is the most well known and recognized wizarding hospital in the world so they do get lots of patients from outside of country.

Harry, Daphne and Hermione passed much less time in the room than the Weasleys. That was due to the fact Neither Daphne or Hermione felt good to intrude on that family time. Harry did stay with the redheads longer that the two girls but eventually joined them.

He was, as Hermione and Ginny expected while Daphne hoped, very pleased by the way Daphne was dressed. He didn't drool, but he certainly had trouble to keep his eyes off of her. Even in the D.A. meetings she didn't wear anything that would show her silhouette that much and he certainly couldn't "complain on the goods" as Ron said – which earned him a hit behind the head from Hermione. Daphne was really flattered by the reaction she got from her boyfriend and immediately started to like the clothes. She never thought of herself as the type to just flaunt her body but regaled in the feeling of being desired by Harry. It of course only applied to him, as the thought of doing it for any other boy made her feel uncomfortable.

Daphne's meeting with Moody and Lupin was completely uneventful. Lupin greeted her cordially, saying he was pleased to meet one of his student from his year experience at teaching. The Slytherin replied by simply saying he had been a very good teacher and that everyone in school missed him. She said that she even heard Malfoy admit that Lupin had been the only real teacher they had for the Defense class. Coming from the ponce, it was a big compliment.

Moody refrained to ask anything about her father but Harry could tell he was burning to do so. He simply warned her to be ready for some hard time in his trainings but didn't push the conversation further. None of them seemed deranged by the fact she was Harry's girlfriend and it was refreshing. Ron and Ginny joined them shortly after.

Harry could tell that even they were starting to think that the visits were too long. Sure they loved their father, sure they wanted him to wake up, but sitting in front of his still form all day, doing nothing, was maddening. The twins, surprisingly, were more patient about it and were usually the ones to keep their mother's company.

"Mom say we can go back to Grimmauld Place after diner." Said Ron. "She said Moody would accompany us so we're safe. I just can't wait to be back at school so we don't need all these escorts anymore."

"And so we can do something else than either walk in a hospital or clean and train in Grimmauld Place." Added Ginny with a sight.

The others all nodded. They were sitting in the little cafeteria and drinking hot chocolate for most or coffee for Hermione. The day was pretty freezing in the end so they welcomed the warm beverages.

"You think we could go buy a few clothes?" Asked Daphne, a bit shyly.

Hermione smiled at that but it wasn't much a happy smile. "I'd like. And I'm certain Harry would love the idea of you parading for him in various clothes."

"Hey! Why do you keep on teasing me about that?" Said Harry with small indignation.

Daphne had a hint of a mischievous smile appearing but it was rapidly replaced by a seductive look while she pushed her bust forward, a finger to her lips. "Don't you like to look at me?"

Hermione and Ginny had a freezed half shocked half amused look. That was before they saw Harry's reaction. They just burst out laughing when they saw his jaw slack and big eyes that just stared at his unusually daring girlfriend. Even Ron was blushing a bit at the sight even though he knew it wasn't directed at him.

"Ehm... eh... I... ehm..." Were the only sound Harry could muster together.

A few second later, Daphne just let out the prettiest girly laugh Harry ever heard, no comparison to Umbridge that made him shiver for a totally different reason when she had her own. Anyway, it soon bloomed into a full laugh while she developed a slight blush in her face for what she just did. At the same time, she was happy that she could do it, as it distanced her from her usual self, the one that reminded her of her father.

It took them a few moments to get back their composure but in the end, Hermione could answer Daphne's question while Harry was saved from the embarrassment of answering his girlfriend's one. "Anyway, we can't. I can't tell you much about the Order other than what is common knowledge even for You-Know-Who. The Order of the Phoenix is a group fighting against the Dark Lord and every one known as member or related to a member of that order is vividly targeted by the Death Eater. That is why we always have escorts and we avoid wandering around. Its obviously worse for Harry."

"Why is that?" Asked the Slytherin.

"We don't know everything, but I would say he want to kill Harry even more than Dumbledore." Explained the muggleborn.

Harry shifted in his place only to have Daphne's hand grab his own in comfort. It helped him but the words still came out with a bit of frustration. "I think they're over-doing it. There is as much chance of them searching for us in here than Muggle London anyway."

"Still, better safe than sorry. At least here we're surrounded by trained wizard." Concluded Hermione.

She could see the two Weasley weren't convinced either. She also knew why Harry hated it that much. He already had to live secluded with his relatives over the summer, now even when he was freed from them he was still feeling trapped. It must be frustrating but his safety came before his well-being... at least that is was she was told by Dumbledore, but she wasn't sure she really agreed to it. Since Harry explained how he would have sent Daphne to Hogwarts even while knowing his father would be able to get her there, she began to doubt the man more. She couldn't deny his goals are good, but his means aren't always.

"Its ok." Said Daphne, trying to deflate the situation. She felt there was growing tension even if she didn't quite understood everything. "Its only for less than two weeks so I can keep on borrowing some clothes then I'll have my trunk at school."

"We'll ask Tonks." Said Ginny with a smile. "She's got good taste and she can simply morph into your shape to try things on."

Harry felt a bit down for the rest of their coffee break before going back to Arthur's room. There, they were met by a scene that made them forget about their golden prison. In the corridor was Chloe that listened to a performance from the twins who were signing Robert Palmer's song "Bad case of loving you". Harry didn't knew the song but the chorus told him it was muggle.

"Doctor Doctor, give me the news, I've got a, Bad case of loving you!"

Harry couldn't help but laugh at that. It certainly fitted the situation with the pretty Healer. At least she was half-blood so she must know what is a Doctor. He was surprised how the twins could sing so good in a duo. He also wondered how they knew that muggle song as even he didn't knew it. Hermione seemed to know it though, as did Ginny and Ron surprisingly. While the duet sang the second part of the chorus - _No pill's gonna cure my ill, I've got a Bad case of loving you! - _Harry asked the obvious question.

"How come they know that muggle song?" He asked while turning to the two Weasley with them.

"Oh god they actually did it and we almost missed it!" Said Ginny, completely ignoring Harry.

"What?" Asked the ignored.

"You know that little muggle village near the Burrow?" Said Ron with a smile, not leaving sight of the twins that seemed to know the full song. "Well before going to Grimmauld, we went and got to listen to a bit of muggle music. That song came up and the chorus kind of stay. Well at Christmas they remembered it when a half-blood kid I'd guess passed the corridor talking about "Magic Doctors". They decided they would learn it and sing it to Tracey's sister as she's kinda hot, I have to admit, but we never thought they were serious!"

"I'm sure Tonks helped them." Said Ginny, still in awe. "They can't have become that good on their own."

"Oh god!" Daphne was laughing so bad she was folded in two. They could see Chloe blushing like mad and that she wasn't that much at ease with the situation. "Harry, we need to get Dumbledore's pensive to show that to Tracey, she's going to kill us if she miss it."

"Don't worry." Said Tonks from the side. She looked like she just arrived from whatever mission she had and joined them to relieve Lupin who wasn't there anymore. They often rotated the Aurors escorting during the day when there was visits. "I saw the whole thing and I'll gladly share that memory!"

Once the song finished, the two identical boys bowed in thanks to the applause from the onlookers. The small crowd they had gathered were cheering for a kiss and Chloe had to comply and gave each of them a kiss on the cheek. The twins victory parade was nothing short of ridiculous and seemed to help the older Davis to fight back her embarrassment.

Feeling a pull on his hand, Harry followed his girlfriend to the woman. When she saw her, Chloe's smile dropped to a frightened one.

"Oh god now I'll never live through this..." Said the blonde girl before falling in a chair.

"Of course you'll live! Tracey wouldn't be able to torment you if you died from embarrassment. She'll just make your life miserable." Said Daphne with a wicked smile.

Both girls had a laugh at the comment, even if Chloe's one was looking a bit forced. She stopped fast though when she saw their hands still interlocked. "Well that is interesting... Does my sis' know?" She asked, happy for the change of subject.

The couple both smiled, tightening their grip subconsciously. "Of course she does. Who do you thing forced me to muster the courage to tell him... and set up the good opportunity while still being undercover about being friends with people outside of our House." Daphne rolled her eyes at the same time and conversation was easy after that, the Healer being in her break anyway.

Daphne seemed happy to meet her best-friend sister again. It seemed she would often sleep over at the Davis house, his father thinking Tracey was pure-blood. That way Harry learned Chloe was in fact a very shy girl, much the contrary of what Tracey is. She was in Hufflepuff and her personality had a break out after she dated the most popular guy in their house at the time but she wasn't even able to speak up before that. She was in fact one year younger than Tonks and Harry now had a vague souvenir of the girl being in seventh year while he was in his first... that or he just imagined it now that he knew he must have seen her at least once. Most of all that he learned from explanations Daphne gave him after Chloe got back to work.

The rest of the visit passed in a blur while the twins were awfully proud of themselves and kept saying on the way back that they would cast a permanent sticking charm to the very light-pink, almost transparent lipstick marks Chloe made on their cheeks. Harry knew it was mainly for fun that they did this and maybe also to cheer up their mother that had also been softly giggling at the show. He knew they didn't felt anything for the pretty blonde other than normal attraction from boys toward beautiful girls. Also, she had an engagement ring at her finger so it kind of spoiled any chances they might have had.

As Ginny guessed, Tonks did accept to buy clothes for Daphne and after replicating her perfectly from head to toe – almost giving Harry a nosebleed from the rush of feelings and hormones, lets not talk about his imagination – she left while changing back her head only to something closer to her real self but different to stay incognito.

Harry did get his parade though and he was wondering if the girls were tormenting him on purpose. Daphne tried and paraded for the girls, including Tonks, and Harry as the only representative of the male gender. She was changing in the small adjoined bathroom to the girl's room. It was mainly comfortable clothes but Tonks did buy some things for fun, including underwear – that she tried but didn't parade of course. There was some of the pieces that the Slytherin categorically refused to wear, like a skirt so short the slightest movement would reveal her knickers colors to the world. She didn't even acknowledge the existence of the bunny suit Tonk bought from a sex shop. Even a puppy eyed Tonks – in like, REAL puppy eyes – couldn't convince her to even look at it.

In the end it was a good day. It was the first time Harry could spend so much time with his girlfriend and he was very glad she requested to stop hiding their relation. He planed on spending most of his free time with her and hoped she wouldn't get tired of him. He wasn't scared of it, but he still decided he would keep an eye on it and leave her some space when she seemed like she needed it. That was in fact an advice from Hermione in the first days of his new relationship with the Slytherin. She gave him much more advises than that, but he didn't remember most of them. Anyway, she mentioned "Be yourself" so he decided that one was a good basis.

Soon would be the train ride to Hogwarts. Harry had heard Sirius and some other members of the order talk about using the Knight Bus to Hogsmeade but they changed their mind after Harry insisted on taking the train. A small ride in that bus was already nauseous enough, a long ride certainly wasn't inviting. He much preferred the thought of riding smoothly in the train, Daphne sleeping in his arms while he exchanged jokes with his friends. He thought about it so much that he dreamt about it. In his dream, Malfoy would also come by and be so shocked at the sight of Daphne in his arms that he would faint with a girly whimper. Strangely after that, the compartment door would close and he would again see that plain black door instead of it. The compartment would morph to the black corridor leading to the door and Daphne's comforting presence would vanish. He would stare at the door for a long time before waking up, not feeling rested at all. He knew what that "dream" meant and couldn't help but ask himself the question.

"Damn, Voldemort... What are you doing?"

In the end, Tonks wasn't able to train the group for the rest of the holidays. She was sent by the Ministry to verify a lead they had just got on Sirius. Of course, the information was "gathered" by Kingsley so it was obviously a false lead, but they had to keep undercover so she played her part, looking eager to go on the manhunt. This was in fact an advancement on her part. Kingsley was the one to ask the head of the Auror corps to have her with him to check the lead, but going from regular patrol duty to actually going on the field was much like a promotion. The real reason Kingsley asked for her was that they planned on inventing a few more leads to try and lure the Ministry outside of the country and so he couldn't be accompanied by a Ministry loyal Auror. Scrimgeour first wanted to send a more experienced Auror with the black man, but Shacklebolt convinced his superior by telling him she had a big potential and that she only needed to be given the chance to prove herself. It only helped that it was actually very true. So in the end, Tonks was very pleased by the assignment. It didn't stop her to give them a full training program to follow, saying Sirius was gonna supervise it and tell her if any of them slacked off.

None of them did.

The program seemed even harder than her regular training to the ones used to it. For Daphne, it was like being used to climb a big hill at a leisure pace then be asked to run up the Everest at full speed. She actually threw up the first day but never complained. She could see that the others were having trouble following the program too but much less than her. She had thought she would be ok, thinking that she was leading the group the other day, but while they were taking it easy that time, she was in fact going at her regular pace, she wasn't used to work harder than that.

Only Ginny knew that Daphne didn't keep the light breakfast she took that morning. Daphne asked that she didn't tell the others, she didn't want to be seen as week or to slow them down. Ginny understood her so she kept the secret.

In the end, she was able to follow the group if she forced herself a bit more than them. At least it was only three times a week that they followed Tonks torture program, the rest of the week they only took a small run every morning to warm up.

Mad Eye's training was as hard as even but in a different way. Once they were better at aiming and evading – which they learned Daphne was naturally good at – they dropped the training spells, except for the dangerous ones. It wouldn't do them any good if they permanently crippled themselves during mere training, or worse, died. They couldn't deny that they were more adamant to avoid the real spells that the blunt training ones, but they didn't want to start sending real piercing hexes and actually hit a vital spot. The hard part was that he had them start on batting away the spells with their wands, not being permitted to evade.

"In real duels, evading isn't always possible." He explained. "You all know the Protego spell, but even if its useful, its a weak spell. The best way to block it to use your wand. Your wand is filled with magic yes but don't forget to put yours in it too. Think of it like doing a concentrated Protego that covers your wand and use it to strike the spell away. That is what define advanced fighters, some of them being even able to redirect the spell at someone else or even back toward the caster. But don't forget that once you deflect the spell, it start to lose its power so don't count on it to have the same effect on anyone you redirect it to. And don't even try to use that against an unforgivable unless its visibly very weak. The stronger the spell, the stronger you have to be to strike it away."

Of course, the twins were already awfully good at it, their beaters experience helped a lot in here. Still, they found out that Moody would have been the best damn beater in the world if he had used his talent in Quidditch instead of against Dark Wizards. The first night they found out he never even moved an inch from his standing place and was able to even deflect spells coming from behind him and send it toward someone else. Even with his eye allowing him to cover his dead angles, it was a great feat.

The last training of the holidays had been with Lupin, so it was easy and pretty smooth. He thought them advance uses of the Protego charm, how to expand it, concentrate it or even cast it to protect someone else farther away. He also explained them how they could be layered multiple times to enhance them enough to even stop the Killing Curse, but it needed the caster to actually cast it multiple times in a row, so it was more like a desperate move, not an efficient one to use in fighting as it was slow to build up, yet useful in some situations. Some wizards had a stronger magical core and could put more power in one spell, so the layering casting was some sort of compromise for the weaker cores. Once they had all that mastered, he had started them on silent casting. The twins were already decent in silent casting so he had them perfect themselves while he explained the theory to the younger ones.

It was a very productive Christmas in the end. They felt much more healthy and much more confident.

That was true except for Daphne.

"Daphne, you stay here." Said Ginny after Lupin's class. The dark haired witch, looked puzzled but complied. "Professor Lupin..."

"Please call me Remus. I'm not a professor anymore even if I train you." Said the werewolf.

"Remus... Daphne is sick." Said the redhead.

"No I'm not!" Denied the Slytherin. "I'm just not used to your pace that's all..."

"Sirius told me you've been pushing yourself more than the others." Said Remus, looking serious. "If you've been feeling sick because of it you should have told us."

Daphne understood that she couldn't escape it and sent a cold glare toward the younger witch. Ginny replied with a determined glare that shattered Daphne's shell. In front of both of them, they saw her face lightly contort and she just crumbled to the floor. The fastest to get to her were neither Ginny or Remus, it was Harry that had been waiting further away for her. He went far enough to not hear what the two girls would have said but the moment he saw her drop on the floor, he ran to her immediately.

"I'm weak..." She said while her boyfriend hugged her.

"Remus... I think she's overworking herself. She..." Ginny started before looking at the girl on the floor. She didn't want to break her promise but it was important. "She was sick the first day we followed Tonks program. She had told her she could follow us but she just wasn't ready for that much of a workout. She had me keep quiet about it but I could see she was struggling to even keep up. I was worried so I observed her more recently and even if she can hide it well, its obvious she's not doing any good to her body. She eats less, sleeps bad, and I can see her shaking when she thinks no one is looking."

"That's no good Daphne. You will have better results if you take it at you own pace. Tonks made that program for them because she knew they could take it. If your body isn't ready, take it easier. Overworking oneself is not a good thing, because your body don't have the time to rest itself enough to grow correctly. If you push too much, you're gonna weaken instead of strengthen."

"Yeah... I know..." Said Daphne.

"Then why?" asked Harry. He was looking at his teary girlfriend.

"I didn't want to burden you... I didn't want to be left behind." She looked down at her hands in her lap. "I don't know... Maybe I thought you wouldn't like me as much if I wasn't able to follow you. I hopped I could catch up to your pace easily."

Harry couldn't help but chuckle at that. "And you are the Slytherin?"

"What does it have to do with it?" Asked a bit irritated girl.

"Aren't Slytherins supposed to be a bit more selfish? Yet here, you knowingly ruin your body for us. I can see why most Slytherins say we Griffindors are stupid if that's really how we act." Explained Harry.

Daphne looked at him with a hard look. She was silent for a few seconds before she started to chuckle, slowly turning into a full belly laughter. "Yes... you are stupid... It seems you're bad influence on me!"

She was quickly joined by the others in her laughter. Remus and Ginny started to edge away slowly, leaving the couple alone, something they didn't have that much even if living in the same house for a full two weeks. They didn't wait for them to be out before kissing lightly.

"Promise me you'll take your time? We're not in a hurry or anything and if we could get to this level in only two weeks, then you can too since you start even better than we were at the time." Said Harry after the kiss.

"Yeah... I'm sorry. That was pretty stupid of me. You still like me right?" Said the sixteen year old girl.

"Of course!" Said Harry without any hesitation and with a big smile that woke up the butterflies in her stomach..

"Then show it to me..." She concluded before grabbing the back of his head and pulling hard so she could snog him senseless. Harry let out a low appreciative grunt before complying, a hand in the small of her back while the other played gently with her hairs.


	11. Chapter 11

**Well... This will probably be the last regular weekly update. I'm playing Star Wars The Old Republic, the new MMORPG and it take a lot of my free time. I don't plan on abandonning that fic though and I will do my best to not make you wait too long between chapter and try to keep the weekly update as much as possible, or at least every two weeks.**

**If you're also on SWTOR and want to join up in game for anything, I'm on the server Sanctum of the Exalted. I'm a Light Side Sith named Faust, just send me a mail IG or here.**

**Well, sorry for the bad excuse, on to the story ^^**

* * *

><p><em>...<em>

_It is this reporter's concern that the Ministry's judgement wasn't as sharp as they claim it was by giving too much authority the new High Inquisitor. It doesn't help that this same person had half her student decide to remove her class from their schedule because it was "Completely rubbish" "Boring" and loads more thing that I can't write in this magazine without needing to put an age restriction to readers._

_This reporter's also had his hands over the holidays on the fabled volume they had to study and_

_..._

Cornelius had enough. The Quibbler, even if it was the less regarded media support, was still read by some and words travel fast, even more when you're in a magical world. People kept on sending letters of complaints about Umbridge and he was almost fearing that he was losing the grasp on Hogwarts he worked hard to get. That article wasn't the first, somebody in Hogwarts has been sending letters to the editor from the school and it was certainly a student as most of the "source's" information could only come from direct experiences.

He had to do something to get back the trust of the people, yet he couldn't spare his contact in the school.

"So Lucius... How do you think we should address this situation?" Said Fudge to his most trusted adviser.

The platinum haired man drank an other sip of his coffee. "You have to make an action, find a solution to a problem. Right now, words won't do anything, at least not alone. They need to be preceded by an act that will please the population."

"We could capture a criminal. I have my doubts that Stan, the Knight Bus conductor, is hiding a lot, probably big stuff. Maybe even being the one to kidnap the Greengrass girl as he was one of the last ones to see her." Said Fudge. That had been another thorn in his foot when the girl disappeared. He was just barely able to silence the press on the thing, but few peoples already suspected kidnapping.

"It is an idea. But it doesn't address the current problem. The action need to have a link to Hogwarts situation." Said Lucius. He, on his part, didn't seem so saddened by the disappearance of Daphne.

"What do you suggest? I can't just have a teacher sacked without anything!" Retorted Fudge while putting his cup down a bit to strongly, spilling a bit of coffee on the desk.

"You control the press, you can create the reason. I would suggest the half-giant. You won't even have any need to find a reason for him. He brought dangerous animals in his classes, he is a half-breed of the worst kind, most students are scared of him and I'm certain your High Inquisitor already have studied enough his classes to give you more reasons. My son can speak of it too." Concluded Lucius as if it was obvious. The look on Fudge face told him he had given him what he wanted.

"Great idea! Well, I don't dislike the man that much in fact, but its for the best. Great power need great responsibilities, yet also its share of sacrifices. Its good to have you by my side Lucius, you always seem to have the solution to everything. If I didn't knew you more, I'd fear you more than Dumbledore about pinning for my post." Fudge was already writing a message to Umbridge about sending him her review of Hagrid's classes.

"Oh I would hate to be in the spotlight. I'm happy enough without all these responsibilities. I'm just glad I can help from my insight." Said Lucius with a barely hidden grin.

The Malfoy patriarch kept his devoted image on the outside, devoted to the Ministry and the well-being of the population. On the inside, it was certainly something else. He couldn't help but be glad the minister was such a fool. He was already dancing in his palm. No need for the Impero curse to control him, a simple nudge in the right direction and wonders happened.

oOo

"Come on! Hurry-up!" Said Mrs. Weasley to the group.

They were to Portkey near the station in less than half an hour and obviously, every redheads of the house were still in the process of packing the belongings they brought plus their gifts. Hermion was ready in advance, as was Daphne, but Harry was a tad-bit late. He had tried to pack in the morning with the spell Tonks had used when they came to get him on summer. It was a mess in the end. All he was able to do was bundle everything in one spot, his trunk open on the top as if it was trying to swallow up everything. Harry wondered why they had brought him that much of his things, he didn't even use half of them. It was McGonagall that had gotten his and every Weasley's things. It was a good thing in the end that they didn't have that much belongings.

Once every one was ready, they rounded up around a plate. They had to squeeze themselves a bit to be all able to touch it – not that Harry and Daphne minded - but in the end they felt the familiar tug on their navel and the unpleasantness of the trip gave harry a light headache. Moody and Molly were accompanying them, but Tonks was supposed to wait for them on the platform. They quickly made it to the barrier with just enough advance to not have to run and still have some time to say goodbye.

"Wotcher, Harry." Said the familiar voice.

"Hey Tonks!" Said Ginny.

Harry saw that she had no disguise. It was a bit weird in fact. He voiced his question in a low tone so only her and his friends could hear. "Say Tonks. How come you never disguise yourself? Aren't you supposed to fake hating me and Dumbledore?"

"It was already common knowledge that I was on your and Dumbledore's side, just like Moody and some other Aurors. So I don't need to hide or anything. As long as I search for Sirius, or a least look like it, I can stay in the Aurors. I'm just not counted on for helping against you or Dumbledore. Other than Moody, who is retired anyway, no other Aurors are know member of the Order though. So really, no need to worry about me." Answered Tonks in as low a tone as Harry.

"DAPHNE!"

The group turned to see Tracey running toward them. Harry was openly holding hands with his girlfriend which brought the blond girl to a sudden stop before a smirk appeared on her face. "Well, you've made me worry a lot for nothing."

"What do you mean Trace?" Asked Daphne after a friendly hug with her best friend.

"Don't you think your father didn't try to contact me to know where you where? My sister waited for the last day to tell me she saw you. She said once she learned your father was searching for you that it was best if the least people knew you where with Harry Potter and as your father was becoming more and more insistent toward us, she thought it best not to tell me either." She said. "I should have guessed that you'd contact him first though. Yet I'm still surprised that you seem to have decided to come out in the open."

"Sorry, but as you said, I knew father would have checked with you, so it was better to go to someone he didn't knew I had ties with." Said Daphne, giving a light squeeze to Harry's hand. "And yes, I know its surprising but at the same time, its the best. It would have come out anyway someday, I never cared for the others opinion."

"Now I really wish we had Colin and his camera at the ready for when Malfoy sees you two together." Continued Tracey before the whistle of the train stopped anybody from commenting.

They didn't take long for the goodbyes and quickly got to the closest wagon. On the way, Daphne saw her father in the distance, just as he also saw her. Harry felt her stop and look to somebody in the distance. Even without Daphne telling him, he knew who that was. She had mentioned that she looked a lot like her father and he couldn't deny the resemblance. He already had an androgynous face so it didn't shock him that much. Still, when he looked at his girlfriend's father, he couldn't help but feel the difference between the two of them. She did get her cold demeanor from him, but she was warm on the inside – god forbid if Ron ever hear that thought.

Protectively putting an arm around her shoulder, Harry glared at the man with all the intimidation his fifteen year old self could muster against the much older wizard. In the end, it still seemed to work well as the man who at first wanted to get to his daughter stopped in his track, looking slightly gobsmacked. Once the train began moving, they climbed in it, allowing the conductor to close the door.

They stayed in the entrance a few minutes, Daphne holding onto him while still shaking a little. Harry caressed her back a bit to soothe her, kissing her cheek at the same time. "You ok?"

"Yeah... I knew he'd be there but... well, it still brought back the bad memories." She replied, calming a bit under her boyfriend's treatment.

The conductor was still there and was doing his best to look like he wasn't listening, failing badly. Harry saw that and decided to move the conversation elsewhere. "Lets go see the others, they might have already found a compartment."

Daphne simply nodded before kissing him lightly, wishing the conductor would just vanish right there and leave them alone, but he had a job to do and they were in fact in his way. Walking away, they headed for the last cart, knowing their friends would start by this one to check for an empty cabin.

oOo

A blond haired boy, accompanied by two gorillas looking guys, was striding toward the last car of the train. A bit more faster and people would have said he was almost running, but that is not the point. Draco had heard some Hufflepuf say that they saw the Ice Queen, the girl that had disappeared on New Year's Eve, walk toward the last car. Even if the media was silenced, it seemed like the word had spread about her leaving and not coming back, or being kidnapped. He even heard some people say they saw her with Harry Potter in St-Mungos, which was simply preposterous, even more as they claimed she was wearing muggle clothing, something he knew she would never do.

Still if she was indeed in the last car, he had things to straighten up with her. He planned on finishing what he had started on that night, right here in the train to teach her her place. He had decided he was sick of waiting and with the benediction of his and her respective fathers, he was supposed to deflower her as a celebration of the new year. That got ruined and he had to fall back on Pansy to calm his urges. Oh she had complied happily but she was so on a lower level that he couldn't think of her as anything else than a cum-bucket. At least she was pure-blood. Still, maybe he'd knock up Daphne's half-blood friend at the same time he did her, they would probably be together, but he'll have to wash straight away after.

The thought of Daphne crying while he broke her hymen, her shuddering and her resigned eyes made him almost drool as his heart beat quickened and he felt blood concentrating in his groin. He readied his wand, so he could paralyze her a bit to keep her from running again. He also had to cast a silencing charm, it wouldn't do good if somebody heard them. He would put Crabe and Goyle as guards also, he wanted privacy for that particular girl.

One by one, he started to check in the compartments from the doors windows. If the curtain were drawn, he would just barge in to see who it was. While being there, why not remind the lower cast of their status? Just barging without doing anything looked pretty pointless. Once he got in on a couple snogging, he had a lot of fun menacing them. Still, he was in a hurry so he probably seemed rushed in his accusations. Not that he really cared.

In the end, he was left with the last compartment of the train, just to frustrate him for having checked every one of them. It was still possible that she wasn't there, the curtains were drawn so he couldn't see inside who was there. That is when he heard Potter's voice, soon followed by that Mudblood's one, confirming him she couldn't be there. A smirk appeared on his face while thinking that even if the Hufflepuf was wrong about Daphne being in the last car, it wasn't all wasted. Hell bent on getting on Potter's nerve and trying to get him expelled, he opened the compartment door with force, a sickening smirk on his face that dropped the moment he saw the scene.

There, lying in that spiteful Pretty-Boy's arms, was HIS Daphne, the girl that was for him to own. The whole compartment where sat Harry, Daphne, Ron, Hermione, Tracey, Ginny and Jeffrey – who had been in the car already when the group came in - was looking at him and Tracey probably had the strangest expression for the situation. While the others had a slightly shocked or angry expression, the half-blood blond had an expression that described interest and anticipation.

But Draco didn't see it. All he could see was the black haired girl tightening her hold of Gryffindor's Golden Boy's arms that circled her neck, hanging in front of her. Her look held a bit of fear but it was overshadowed by the hate she was showing, all of it directed to him. Without being conscious of it, his jaw fell slack and he repeatedly tried to force it back in place but his jaw muscles would barely respond. In the end it was Ron that broke the tense silence.

"What do you want, Malfoy?" Spat the redhead.

That seemed to wake him up, as it also did his anger. "You..." He pointed to Harry. "Drop that curse you're using on her. There's no way she would be with you unless you cursed her, threatened her or used love potion. She belongs to me!"

His voice sounded more desperate than anything else, which made Tracey laugh. Malfoy simply ignored her, too concentrated on the object of his ire.

"I'd do it... If I did use any. Contrary to you, I don't need to force or threaten people to have them as friend, or girlfriend in Daphne's case." Said Harry in a neutral voice. Imperceptibly, he got his wand out behind his back. He didn't saw it but he knew every one in the compartment other than Daphne – both her hands were holding Harry's arm on her chest, something Harry certainly didn't complain about - had theirs out too.

"Stop lying, how could somebody like you strike a girl like Daphne?" Said Malfoy.

"You mean a boy that actually likes me for more than my look, makes me feel safe, makes me happy, respect me, cares for me, and never tried to assault me? Yes, I really wonder how I would like him." Daphne said, the last part not without evident sarcasm.

"He's a half-blood! Orphan, shunned by the Ministry and a damn idiot!" Replied Draco, gripping his wand so tight his knuckles where white.

"I don't care about his blood, never cared about anybody's blood. He's a better man than you in every points and that's what is making you jealous." Said Daphne.

"I'm not jealous of him! I'll never be!" Screamed the Slytherin Prefect.

"Really?" Said Daphne. Suddenly, she took Harry's hand and put it straight on her left breast. "And now, are you?" She added with a mischievous smile.

The reactions of the others were pretty mixed. Tracey was holding her belly in silent laughter while Ron and Hermione had a shocked face. Ginny was a bit red faced but looked much less shocked than the other. Jeff was clearly amused yet still surprised. Of course, Harry's expression was a mixture of surprise and confusion, complemented by a very goofy grin.

Draco suddenly looked dumber than Goyle, clearly jealous and not at all ready for that kind of situation. He didn't know what to do and instinctively backed away. He was just outside of the compartment's door when, for a dramatic ending, Jeff use his wand to shut the door just in front of his nose the moment he opened his mouth to say something. It locked itself and Draco found himself mentally beat and not able to open the door.

He just glared at the door while hearing the roaring laughter from inside before he turned and walked away, followed by his two goons but feeling his dignity had stayed in the compartment so it could be bashed even more.

Potter would pay and Daphne would be his, he was gonna make sure of it!

oOo

"That... was... PRICELESS!" Said Tracey once everyone in the car regained their composure. "I can't believe you did that but damn it was too perfect!"

"Talking about that..." Said Harry with a nervous smile, having gotten back his hand - where he was certain he could still feel his girlfriend's breast.

"What you didn't like it?" Asked Daphne with a mock surprised look.

"I can't say I didn't like it... but I don't want you to think I'm with you just for that or..." Started the boy but was cut by Daphne.

"I know, don't worry. I know you're not that type of guy. That is also why I felt safe doing that. I can't believe myself for doing it either in fact but... yeah, I wanted him furious and that's the first thing that came to my mind. He tried but was never able to put an hand on them." Explained the Slytherin girl.

Everyone looked at Tracey that was uncorking a vial she got from who-knows-where and put her wand to her temple. When she separated it from her head, a silver strand was hanging from it which she put in the vial before putting back the cork on it. She saw the questioning look the other were shooting at her and looked between every one of them.

"What? I have to extract it while its fresh so I can view it as much as I want in the Room of Requirement!" She said.

They had in fact been able to summon a pensive when they were thinking about a way to trap Umbridge, but that was before Susan told them it wouldn't be enough and they never had a reason to summon it back. Harry wondered if Dumbledore's memory remained in it when they called for it, but felt a bit bad about prying in them unauthorized. Everybody shrugged off the comment and Ginny was the one to change the subject.

"So... Tracey, what did you get on Christmas?" She asked.

"Mainly usual stuff like clothes from mom and dad, the next book in the series I read and cool boots from Daph. Nothing really special other than that." She said with a shrug. "How about all of you?"

Here followed everyone commenting on each others gifts. It was pretty casual talk and pleasant. Harry and Daphne hadn't yet gave each other their gift as they left them at school, not thinking they would see each other before their return. Jeff was the one to get the most unusual gifts but that was because it was more muggle things.

"You didn't tell us what you got Daphne. Even at **that** place." Said Ginny they had already explained Jeff and Tracey they couldn't tell anything about the place they were and of course, they understood it was a Fidelius Charm that was used.

"Because I didn't really get anything worth mentioning..." She said.

"What? What about me and your sister's gift? Didn't you show them all?" Said Tracey with a glint in her eyes.

"I said nothing even WORTH mentioning..." Insisted Daphne while blushing a bit.

"Oh now we ALL want to know!" Said Hermione with a smile.

Looking around her, Daphne saw she couldn't escape it from the insistent glares she got from everyone. "All right... but no I won't show you. From my father I got some very ugly earrings. They reeked of Dark Magic and I'm certain they would have turned me into a docile little daughter had I wore them. There's a reason I make my own food even with an elf at home. I'm also pretty good at the detection charm to see when so sort of magic could affect me if I eat or touch something. Malfoy got me a gift. I wanted to throw it in the fire straight in front of him but our fathers where watching so I unwrapped it, saw it was a book on how to be a good housewife, waited for when nobody was watching and then threw it in the fire."

"Not a good start on gifts. What did you do with the earrings?" Asked Jeff.

"Probably still at home." Said Daphne. She then glared at her best friend. "Tori and Tracey... well... they got me a gift together. Very, VERY, light lingerie."

"Right now you don't like it, but one day you'll thank us... And Harry will too!" Claimed the perverted girl with a grin.

Said boy was beat red, as was his girlfriend. They let the other laugh a bit and hoped that if they didn't argument or comment on anything they said, the subject would change. It did but took a lot of time. Still Harry couldn't help himself from picturing his girlfriend in the type of underwear you see on publicity, which had him shift a bit on the bench so his condition under the belt stayed unnoticed. He was also very careful not to "poke" the girl that still rested partially in his arms.

The subject obviously derived to the next D.A. meeting, after a conveniently placed privacy spell. Harry had promised to start Patronuses on the last meeting as they had already revised and taught all the spells they needed for the OWLs and even a few for NEWTs. Hermione had worked hard to find all the spells needed and Harry was the one the point out those he found the most important to know and master beyond what was needed of the school level to properly fight. Still, he didn't knew if they would have time now for the anti-dementor spell as he planned on turning the meetings in real training time. That reminded him that he had to inform Tracey and Jeff of the new program.

"That reminds me." He said, turning to the two concerned. "I have to tell you that were gonna be trained by a few people very soon. We already experimented a lot of it and its not going to be easy. I thought that after the Patronus, it wasn't useful to learn more spell really, it was more important to learn to properly fight. So we'll have new teachers coming."

Tracey and Jeff smiled at that. "That's a great idea! Who will they be?"

"Professor Lupin, Mad-Eye, the real one this time, an Auror named Tonks and S...omeone else I forgot the name." Said Daphne, catching herself just on time. Tracey didn't buy it at all, she knew her best-friend too well, but she remained quiet. Jeff didn't see anything so he continued on the subject.

"Well, do any of you remember his name? You said you trained with them right?" He asked the others. The air in the compartment suddenly tensed as the great majority of the person in it shifted in their seat. Harry was the most calm about it but now even the American knew there was something from the long silence that followed his question.

"Maybe... We should tell them, right?" Asked Ron. "Remember what happened when Daphne learned it in the wrong way."

"I don't know..." Said Harry, thoughtful and instinctively looking at his trunk where was the new two-way mirror his godfather gave him. Remus had almost blasted his old friend when he was asked for not one but two other pair of two-way mirrors. Apparently, it wasn't as easy as Sirius had said it was and even if the werewolf was able to do it, he told them to be extra careful with them as the next ones they'd have to purchase them or learn to do them themselves. They didn't know the details but he told them there was a reason they were bloody expensive and almost as rare as Pensives. Anyway, they now had a pair for the two of them and an other for him and Daphne to use in school. Moody, Tonks and Lupin would share the other one when it was their turn to teach.

"Well it looks like some big secret." Said Tracey. "But if he's going to teach us, I guess we'll learn about it anyway."

"He's going to be hiding is identity in fact..." Said Ginny, not too sure if it was ok to even say that.

At that point, nobody seemed to know how to approach the situation. They of course all wanted to tell them, they proved themselves numerous times to be trustworthy already, but they didn't knew if it was a good idea and if Sirius would approve.

Tracey was starting to look a bit offended that she was kept out of it and irritation could be read on her face. Jeff was more calm but still remained curious. Everybody that knew were looking at each other nervously and Tracey couldn't take it anymore.

"Oh come on! You know you can trust us!" Said Tracey.

"That's not the point... Its how you'll react that makes us nervous..." Said Hermione.

Jeff snorted at that. "As if we'd quit just because one of the teacher is scary or something. You act like we're going to be trained by a Death Eater or worse, Sirius Black!"

The collective gasp from the others in the cart was a dead give-away. Ron actually started to inch toward the door, away from Tracey who, unsurprisingly, had her jaw slack, looking a bit like Malfoy a bit before. Jeff had just stopped moving, looking like a statue.

The blonde girls was the first to regain the function of her body. "You've... got... to…be...fucking...kidding me! You got a mass murderer doubled loyal Death Eater as a trainer for fighting? How about sending an invitation to a mass suicide where all he have to do is make sure everybody drinks the poison?"

"You see... that's why we were nervous... Still, you don't know everything." Tried to say Ginny to calm the two others.

"Well I hope that's not everything!" Said Tracey. "And why are you laughing?"

Daphne, on her part, was holding her chuckles. While the other were almost shaking like a dry leaf in the wind from fear their friends would do something stupid or won't accept the explanations, Daphne shook because she saw in Tracey the same face she must have shown the day Sirius walked in the kitchen unannounced, which she had to say was hilarious on that side.

"Its just... Your expression is priceless. I was too angry against Draco to really look at him but... You're doing a very good imitation right now!" Said Daphne with poorly controlled chuckles.

"Ok listen!" Said Harry with a bit of force, wanting to be over it quickly . It worked as he got full attention of the compartment occupants. "Sirius has never been and still isn't a Death Eater, neither a mass-murderer even if he certainly did kill in the last war as he was fighting against the Death Eater."

"Hello? The man that infiltrated the castle, that was after your blood? Its not like he cares for you or any of us!" Said Tracey, still a bit shocked. She would have probably thought it was a joke if the serious faces they wore weren't so deep, something you can't fake, the fact Daphne was laughing didn't even trump that.

"I hope he does care for me at least a bit. He's my Godfather." Said Harry. Daphne's silent laughter had lessened to a simple amused grin but it redoubled back when she saw Tracey and Jeff eyes become as big as a Snitch.

"Ok...Tell me you're joking now...please?" Said Jeff with a bit of fright in his voice.

"I'm not joking. And I repeat. He never betrayed my parents for Voldemort and killed all those Muggles plus Pettigrew, because its really Pettigrew that betrayed my parents and killed all those muggles before fleeing from Sirius that just arrive to beat the crap out of him for what he did." Harry was more calm now, his girl friend laughter had been a bit contagious and eased his mind a bit.

"Seriously?" Asked Tracey.

"Completely "Sirius" " Said Ron with a smile. When nobody laughed, he just shrugged. "I'm sure it would have been funny if it wasn't for the situation."

"Long story short... Sirius was the one people thought would have been the guardian of the secret for the hiding place of my parents. In the end it was Pettigrew they chose. He was also a friend but was in reality so attracted to power he went to Voldemort and gave the secret away." Harry then proceeded to explain the same thing he said to Daphne the other day. He added more details as to how they got the rat and lost him in the Shrieking Shack. While the story continued, Tracey and Jeff calmed down and once it was over, the blond actually took over Daphne's chuckle.

"Well, we can't deny your life is interesting!" Said Jeff.

"That's because you don't know all the rumors that ran the school about him over the years!" Said Tracey.

"Actually, being always so close to him, even we never heard of them." Said Hermione, Sirius subject now over. "I'm a bit interested myself."

"Seconded!" Said Ron.

Tracey looked at Harry with questioning eyes. Sighing, he agreed from the head. In fact he was also a bit curious even if that was just some stuff that resulted of his unwanted fame.

"Well... most of them are just outrageous. I know you can make a Patronus, but somebody said you chased over a hundred of Dementors. Heard it while walking in from of the infirmary one morning." Said Tracey.

Harry simply nodded. "Happened the same night we lost Pettigrew. Sirius was sighted by the Dementors so all of them converged on him. Well the full story is a bit complex and I don't want to start on it, but yeah, I was able to chase them but fainted from magical exhaustion."

"Damn! Here I though it was part of the ridiculous ones..." Said Tracey. "Ok next one. Well that one isn't a rumor really, but Moaning Myrtle has a crush on you." Harry's shoulder just dropped while the other laughed at him. "Oh! One of my favorite! Some say that the Troll you beat in first year, we know you did but rumor says you actually tamed him and that's why yo go so ofter in the forest, to visit it and feed him as he is chained to a tree."

"Ok, that is utter bullshit!" Said Ron. "Harry never beat the Troll, he just got his attention while I dropped it's own club on his head, I got credits for that one!"

"Yeah I'm certain of it." Said Tracey with loads of sarcasm in her voice. Ron started to anger himself until he saw her laugh and understood she was making fun of him.

"Trace, how about that other one about how he got his Firebolt?" Asked Daphne with a smile.

"Oh yeah, that one is from Malfoy." Said Tracey. "He claims you sold your relatives in slavery to buy it."

"No. It was a gift from my Godfather. The Black vault is still his. That's also why I can't just explain everything to get it back. Still... selling my cousin and his parents is pretty tempting." Said Harry with a wicked smile. Of course they all knew it was a joke but, still... tempting...

"Oh! I also love the one where you teleported your aunt to India with accidental-magic." Continued the Slythering girl.

"No, I just blew her like a balloon. She insulted my parents. Strange the story was twisted, it was in the newspaper. With a pretty picture of her gravitating around the Big Ben." Harry remembered that day with sadistic precision. He was too angry at the time to savor the taste of the small retribution he gave her for her mistreatment of him, but now the thought made him smile. Not that he was sadistic, just that people getting what they deserve is just something he never knew before he enjoyed.

"I like it better in fact." Said Tracey, imagining Malfoy get the same treatment.

"I heard one too that is just impossible." Said Ginny. "Some say you had the Horntail Hungarian head sent at our house to have it hanged over the fireplace. Worse is that some people actually believe it!"

"Ahah! We could ask Charlie to tell us what happened to it." Said Ron with some trepidation. "If its dead, we could have him send us a few teeth."

"Ron, you know a single tooth is worth its share of galleons?" Said Hermion.

"I can dream, can't I?" Said Ron with a pouty face.

"That's a good idea in fact. I don't like to beast but... I'm still pretty proud of how I handled it. I'd like a souvenir like that from it. But well, I'd wait for it to be dead though." Said Harry. Daphne on her part imagined her boyfriend with a dragon teeth necklace.

"Dragons can live for hundreds of years. That one looked a bit young in fact." Said Ron with a rare serious face.

"I can dream, can't I?" Copied Harry, without the mock pout. That had Ron laughing.

"Hey Ron, here I thought you only remembered stuff from Quidditch?" Asked Hermione with a smile.

"Dragons are cool, so I do remember what my brother tell me about them." Said the redhead boy. In fact, since Hermione had told him about how she thought he had attention deficit disorder, the two had worked some muggle tricks around it. Its wasn't perfect results but he still seemed to remember more stuff than he used to. Hermione said that she wasn't a doctor or anything so she could be totally wrong about her diagnostic, but still, it seemed to work as he could now last more than five minutes in history class, his new record was 8 minutes and 34 seconds.

"Talking about dragon. An other rumor is that you could also speak to them through Parseltongue." Said Daphne.

"You speak Parseltongue?" Asked Jeff, surprised.

"Yeah, learned I did in second year... And I don't know, never had a chance to try. They're reptiles too, but I don't think so." Said Harry.

"Well Dragons are closer to serpents than other types of reptiles. Some say they're even sort-of related, but that's theories, no real facts." Explained Hermione.

"I'll try to remember to try next time I face a dragon." Said Harry, half truthfully, half joking.

For an other thirty minutes, they recounted the rumors they heard of him. The fact there was so many was very unsettling, mainly as the great majority of them were just stupid. It ranged from Harry actually having an evil twin somewhere, some saying he was the evil one, to him having beaten to unconsciousness thirty or so Death Eaters without magic and a hand behind his back.

"Still, the worse one isn't those." Said Daphne. "I remember someone from Griffindor I think saying he heard a teacher mention in the end of second year that you killed a Basilisk, the Slytherin hidden monster of the Chamber of Secret, with Gryffindor's sword! Talk about over-symbolic and exaggerated."

Daphne, Jeff and Tracey began to laugh while Hermione, Ron and Harry exchanged a strange unsure look. Ginny looked a bit sick, her memory of that even was certainly the worse. Daphne was the first to see that Harry didn't have the reaction they thought he would have. The three that didn't knew about the truth stopped laughing a bit suddenly and the scene started to look a lot like when Sirius name came up,

with Daphne added to the two other.

"Harry? Its... not true, right?" Asked Daphne, now very unsure.

"Ehm... Yes?" Tentatively said Harry, recoiling a bit from her, but the tempest came from a more evident source.

"You mean to tell me the one rumor that we found the most over-exaggerated and ridiculous was in fact real!" Screamed Tracey with bulging eyes.

"Well... I had help. Dumbledore's Phoenix pierced its eyes so it wasn't deadly just from looking anymore." Said Harry. Daphne was too shocked to say or do anything it seemed.

"How did you kill it? It is a bit big to have sliced it's head off." Said Jeff.

"I was cornered and it tried to bite me. I just stabbed the sword I found in the sorting hat in his mouth upward and got to his brain." Said Harry. "Its not like I was skillful or anything. I was simply lucky that my desperate move ended up being effective."

"That is just... hard to believe. Still, coming from you and knowing how you hate boasting or your fame in general, I can't help but think you might be telling the truth." Said Tracey.

"He is." Said Ginny. She didn't want to tell anything at first but she knew just bottling everything wasn't good either. She was just very shameful of that time. "Remember that there was a student captured in the Chamber? Well, that was me. I'm the reason Harry came in and while I was unconscious when the fight was going on, I did see the dead Basilisk with blood coming out of its mouth, Harry holding a sword."

"And you came out without a mark?" Asked Jeff.

Harry rolled the sleeve of his right arm to show a spot on the side of his arm. It was very faint but the tint of the skin was a bit paler and completely hairless. It was small so Daphne wasn't surprised she never saw it as she didn't pay that much attention to that kind of detail. "While I pierced the roof of his mouth, a tooth pierced my arm. Basilisk venom is mortal, but I was lucky to have one of the only cure for it at disposition. Fawkes healed me. Still, I'd have died if it wasn't of Fawkes."

"God dammit Harry!" Finally said Daphne, sounding a bit angry but in fact simply scared to know he was so close to death... yet an other time. She showed it by hugging him so hard he had trouble to breathe. "I know its kind of stupid to say that now but... please be careful with your life?"

"O-Ok... I don't plan on fighting anymore Basilisk if that's what you're afraid of. But I can't promise I'll always be out of danger, my life kinda sucks for that." Said Harry.

"Yeah, I know, but... don't die on me please?" She concluded before kissing him softly.

"Yeah, stay alive for her, I got a feeling she'll make it worth it for you, if you know what I mean..." Said Tracey while wiggling her eye-brows. While the group laughed at the embarrassed faces of the couple, Hogsmeade was coming into view.

"Well I take back what I said earlier." Said Jeff while getting up to get his robe.

"Your life isn't interesting... its just crazy!"


	12. Chapter 12

"Hey you saw them?" Asked a Hufflepuf witch.

"Harry and the Ice Queen? Yeah! He's one lucky bastard." Said the guy sitting next to her.

"She's a Slytherin, and the Ice Queen, cold and manipulative. He on his side is famous and definitely noble, I wonder if he's the lucky one between the two." Said the girl.

"Its true she's a Slytherin, but she never hangs out with the worst of them. And she's hot, that forgives a lot in my mind." Countered the wizard.

"I concur." Said an other guy in front of them, a sixth year. "I had the possibility to speak to her a few times, she's not so bad with casual talk, but don't stand too close."

"How did you got to speak to her? You're not even in the same year." Asked the girl, frowning.

"I... ehm..." Started the sixth year, but he of course couldn't say more as it was about the DA. Susan, sitting beside him, elbowed his rib discretely.

Further away from them, Jeff was listening to some of his house-mates discussing the same subject. He of course knew about it since a good while, but he thought it was more fun to stay out of the conversation and see where the gossip would go.

"You think one of them cursed the other into it?" Asked a seventh year to an other. "Its probably the most unlikely couple of the school."

"I don't think so. Potter has always been one of the most open minded in Gryffindor. I would have been more surprised if she had ended up with Weasley." Said the other. "I had heard she had been kidnapped in fact."

"I heard she fled her house and didn't come back. I think we now know the reason. Anyway, them being together is still going to be the most talked subject for the following months." The first one shrugged while talking, going back to eat after that.

Jeff could confirm that everyone were talking about that. All he could hear around him was "Harry Potter and the Ice Queen!", "A Gryffindor with a Slytherin!", "I love peanut butter-jelly sandwiches!"... Ok almost everyone.

"They make a good couple I think." Said Luna in a sign-tone voice, playing with her food a bit.

Jeff looked at the blonde girl sitting next to him. "You think so? I thought you said they each had too much wrackspurt and that the two clans would clash badly."

"They probably somehow got rid of them, or the clans have made a peace treaty." Stated Luna in a pensive tone. The others that listened looked pretty confused but it wasn't new. Jeff seemed to be the only one to understand Luna's mind somewhat.

Suddenly, his pocket started to get warm a bit. Taking out the fake galleon, he and Luna took a look at it, as did some others at the table and sparingly in the hall. "Next meeting is tomorrow already? Probably gonna explain the news to the others."

"What news?" Asked an other Ravenclaw from the DA sitting close.

Seeing many people around them close to earshot, Jeff was even surprised he could mention they had meetings, but even if he could, he wouldn't tell about the new trainers. "You're gonna learn it in time." Said the American while shrugging.

At the Gryffindor table, Harry was putting away his fake galeon. "Well its set. Tomorrow we'll explain the plans for the rest of the year then make a revision before starting Patronuses."

"I feel a bit weird sitting here..." Said Tracey. She and Daphne were sitting between Harry and Neville. At least, most of Gryffindor were part of the DA and already knew Daphne so they didn't get so much glares from the others at the table. "I'm not used to see the great hall from that side."

They were sitting almost at the end of the table on the doors side. Harry could see Malfoy on the other side of the hall, looking murderous. In fact, most Slytherins were looking in their direction with a disproving glare. Strangely, Daphne didn't seem to care at all, she was in fact almost beaming.

"You look happy Daph." Said Harry with a smile to his girlfriend.

"I am." Replied the girl. "I'm sitting the farthest possible from Malfoy. That's enough for me to be happy. Also, if I had been bothered by that much of glaring, I'll end up crazy in a week."

"Here I though you were happy to eat with me." Said Harry in mock hurt.

Daphne just smiled and kissed him lightly, not even needing to say anything. The rest of the diner went calmly with the others from the DA obviously asking since when they were together and asking how went their holidays. Of course most were curious as to why she went missing for the last weeks, but Daphne always found a way to change the subject or evade the question, often helped by Tracey. Harry was always impressed about their ability in manipulating conversations and sometimes peoples in their favor. They would certainly be able to negotiate merchandise under the cost price if they really wanted it.

When the owls suddenly started to storm in, the couple used the distraction to make an unnoticed exit. Nobody except a few noticed them leaving the table and exiting the hall by the still open doors. Harry saw Umbridge and Malfoy eye them with malice and knew he had to make sure they couldn't follow them.

"Come closer..." He said once they were out of the hall and pulled his invisibility cloak over them. He quickly pushed her behind a suit of armor, holding her in his arms.

"Wha-" Started Daphne before he kissed her to silence her, just on time as Malfoy got out of the hall and looked around, soon joined by Umbridge. Harry's forceful action almost got a moan from Daphne but when she saw the ponce she was able to reign it in. They continued to kiss under the cloak until he was joined by Umbridge a few seconds later. At that moment they broke the kiss to listen to their conversation.

"Hello young man. Looking for somebody too?" Asked the professor, also looking down the hall. She wondered how they could disappear like that. Even if they'd ran they would have at least caught them going through one corridor or the other, but there was nobody around.

"Yes, I wanted to talk to Daphne Greengrass in fact. I'm under the suspicion that Harry Potter did something to her so she likes him. He's so beneath her." Said Draco.

"Hmmm... This is some valid thoughts. Leaving the great hall like that in the middle of the dinner, I wonder what he is doing to her." Said Umbridge with a strange glint in her eyes.

"Should we search for them? They can't be far as I didn't see them anywhere and I exited the hall only a few seconds after them." Asked Draco.

"Yes, I think we should. I was gonna wait until next class to ask you for this but now seems like a better idea." Harry saw Dolores hand him a silver badge with an "I" on it, a bit like a prefect badge. "This is your badge for the Inquisitorial Squad, if you accept it. It gives you much more power than a Prefect. Taking off house points, giving detentions without going through a teacher for it and no curfew for you. I want you to gather a group of students, around twenty, to be part of that group. You'll be the leader and will respond only to me. So, do you accept the job?"

"Yes! Yes I do accept. Do you have suggestions as for people that could join us?" Asked Draco, pinning his badge to his chest with glee in his expression.

"I'd like at least one per house, if possible. I'd suggest Seamus Finnigan from Gryffindor though. Before the holidays, he had time to show me that contrary to the rest of his house, he wasn't blinded by Potter's lies." Said Umbridge.

Harry saw Malfoy frown at that but his smile never faltered. Harry on his part felt almost sick thinking what all that meant for the school. The power she gave that squad was almost as much as what a teacher had.

Umbridge left Draco searching behind the armors and in the antechamber across the hall. Harry didn't want to get near Draco as the ponce already knew he had an invisibility cloak, or at least suspected it from his unauthorized visit to Hogsmeade in third year. Tugging on Daphne's arm, he pulled her toward the stairs leading to the kitchens and where he knew was the Hufflepuf common room. The door was hidden from Malfoy's view by the marble stairs so they would be able to slip in and closing the door without Malfoy seeing it open and close seemingly by itself. Unfortunately for them, he accidentally stepped on Daphne's foot and she had a sudden breath intake that brought their common enemy's attention.

"Who's there?" Suddenly asked the new chief of the Inquisitorial Squad. Harry looked over his shoulder and saw Draco pointing his wand roughly toward them. Inwardly cursing himself, he began to think about how to go with this and get them out of that pinch.

"Who's there what?" Asked a voice from the floor. Nearly Headless Nick's head was popping form the floor just under them.

"What are you doing in the floor?" Asked the visibly irritated blond. He had been certain he had caught them now, but it was only the damn Gryffindor Ghost.

"That's my business but if you need to know, Dumbledore think there is a creature that made its nest between these floors and I'm helping to find it so we know exactly what it is and act if its dangerous." Said Nick while flying up and on Draco's other side, making him turn around.

Frustrated, Draco walked up the marble staircase to the moving stairs. Nick smiled and winked toward Harry before slipping back in the floor. Without anymore sound, the couple hurried toward the door and down the stairs. Once they reached the portrait with the fruit bowl, Harry scratched the pear and quickly opened the painting.

"That was too close. I have to thank him properly, any idea how?" Said Daphne while getting out of the cloak.

Harry roughly folded the cloak and stuffed it in one of his robe's big pocket. "If you know a way to make him totally headless so he can join the Headless Hunt, he'll worship you." Walking toward her, he slipped his arm around her waist and kissed her cheek. "Sorry for walking on your foot, I almost got us caught."

"Don't worry about it. If you didn't have the cloak or didn't stop me from talking, I would have gave us away long before. That makes us even!" She replied, kissing his cheek too. "So this is the kitchen? I never came here before."

Before them was the biggest group of House Elves Daphne ever saw, working to deliver the desert to the Great Hall. Being so busy, they didn't really noticed the the students being there immediately. Daphne was amazed by the speed the elves were cooking, transporting, cleaning... They had a House Elf at home but the poor thing wasn't treated friendly by her father since her mother died.

"Master Harry! You should have told us you were there!" Said Dobby, running to him while whipping some cream at monstrous speed, not spilling a single drop.

"We were just hiding from Malfoy, we already ate." Said Harry.

"But we just started to serve desert, don't you want a bit of cake? Pie? Ice Cream?" Asked the elf.

"Well... I'd like a bit of vanilla ice cream if I can." Tentatively asked Daphne.

As soon as the words left her mouth, she saw two elves make one of the biggest bowl of ice cream she ever saw and hand it to her with a spoon. An other once came and presented her with different sort of topping to make it a sundae. She refused all of them, just wanting the regular ice cream.

Harry laughed at her choice, getting a strange look from the black haired girl. "Ice cream is a fitting choice for the Ice Queen, don't you think?"

Daphne smiled at that before feeding him a bit of it. "I've always loved ice cream. Will you help me though, I don't think I can eat all that myself."

"Sure." Said Harry, closing the distance with her.

While the elves brought him a spoon, he ignored it and they shared the one she had, sitting on the floor near the door, not even bothering to sit at the small table a bit to the left. Harry was happy of that moment with her right now, talking of nothing and everything, just eating ice cream together. They didn't have much alone time, if at all, when they were at Grimmauld place, he was glad of the change. While the elves were numerous, they easily forgot them even being there as they were too busy anyway.

"We should go." Finally said Daphne, getting up and putting the empty bowl in the waiting hands of a smiling elf.

"Master Harry is already leaving?" Asked Dobby.

"Yes, we'd like to stay but we have to respect the curfew." Answered Harry.

"I understand, Master Harry is a good boy. But Dobby don't know yet who is Master Harry's friend." Said the elf, looking at Daphne with curious eyes.

"Oh sorry! I didn't introduce." Said Harry before taking his girlfriend's hand. "This is Daphne Greengrass, my girlfriend."

"Dobby is pleased to meet you Mistress Daphne." Dobby bowed while talking.

"Daphne, this is Dobby." Continued the Gryffindor.

"Pleased to meet you too Dobby." Said Daphne, shaking the elf's hand. "Harry already talked to me about you."

"Master Harry talked about me? Oh I am so honored!" Daphne could see the elf's eyes water from the evident emotion he got just from that. Harry did mention the elf was a bit over-reactive to praises and the likes.

"Well Dobby I'm sorry but we really gotta go or we'll be late." Said Harry with as much tact as he could.

"Of course! Please come visit again, we'll serve you every time!" Said Dobby while bowing again.

Dragging his girlfriend outside, they left the house elves to the cleaning part of their work.

"Well that was fun." Said Daphne as they passed a few Hufflepuf going down to their common room. "I'll definitely come back to get my fix of ice cream, they usually only serve it at events."

"Yeah, the elves are always so happy to serve... don't tell Hermione though, she hates it when we go there. She thinks the elves should all be freed and not forced to serve us." Said Harry just before reaching the stairs for the dungeon.

"But they love serving us, that is the point. Asking them not to serve us is a punishment to them." Said Daphne, frowning.

"I know, but she thinks its us wizard that drilled that though into them." Harry had stopped before the staircase and turned toward the pretty girl holding his hand. "Want me to walk you to your common room? I happen to know where it is."

"No its ok, we can talk through the mirrors." She answered before kissing him. "Now go, or you'll be late!"

A long kiss later, witnessed by a few Slytherins passing by, they parted ways and each got to their common room where they planned on resuming their talk through the two way mirrors.

For a first day in the open, it went pretty smoothly and Harry was surprised that she let that much of her real self show in front of the others. Not that he complained, being able to kiss her anytime was not something she would have allowed if she had wanted to keep her Ice Queen mask on. They might be playing with fire right now but if that was the case, he'd burn himself over and over without any hesitation.

* * *

><p><p>

"There you are!" shot Tracey once Daphne entered the dorm. By some sort of luck, she was able to avoid any question from her housemates, the only ones present when she entered being content on glaring daggers at her.

"Well yeah, here I am." Said Daphne, a bit startled by her friend shout.

"Where have you been? I've been sitting next to you and suddenly you were gone." Said Tracey.

"Sorry... Harry and I didn't have much time alone, even if we were together, so we slipped away once the post arrived." Explained Daphne, sitting on her bed and getting her two-way mirror out of her pocket to put it on her nightstand. Seeing Tracey's look of joy and surprise, Daphne hurried to precise what they did. "We just went to the kitchen and enjoyed desert away from the glares."

The blond's shoulder slumped a bit and she looked a bit disappointed. "Should have guessed."

"Daphne?"

Tracey jumped at hearing Harry's voice in the room and started to check around, after becoming beat-red and hiding her not-very-dressed self under her bed sheets.

The dark haired girl just laughed and pointer to the mirror. "Don't worry, its just a two way mirror. Harry is probably in his room, but trying to call me over with his mirror."

Calming a bit, Tracey got up and ran to the piece of mirror, snatching it before Daphne could. Looking into it, she could see Harry's surprised face.

"Oh hey Tracey, is Daphne there?" He asked, looking away from the mirror.

That's when she realized that if she could see him, he could see her. She wasn't naked but her nightgown didn't hide much and the way she held the mirror probably gave him a good view of her cleavage. Her face colored again and she pointer the thing higher. "She's there but unavailable. I haven't seen her for the full holidays so behave and let us do some long overdue girl talking... Now how do we shut off this thing?"

Daphne grabbed the mirror and turned it toward herself. "Sorry Harry, I'd like some time with Tracey too."

Through the communication device, she saw her boyfriend smile brightly when he saw her. "Don't worry, I thought you would and I'm certain your sister will pass by soon too as she wasn't on the train and didn't join us at the table. I just had a good news to share but it can wait for tomorrow. Good night!"

"Ok, good night Harry." Said Daphne before blowing a kiss to him. Once Daphne put it back on the bedside table, it turned back into a regular mirror.

"Hooooon! You two are so cute!" Teased Tracey, blowing a kiss to her friend, imitating her. Daphne became red with embarrassment before throwing a pillow to her friend. "Still, these mirrors are great. How do they work?"

"You tell the name of the person you want to speak to in it. If that person is near the mirror's twin, the two will connect and we'll hear his voice calling. They're very rare, but we were able to have others made that just warm like the fake galleons, so its more subtle, but we'll use them with the new trainers." Explained Daphne.

"That's awesome!" Said Tracey, clearly amazed. "So I'm guessing you two will have some late night talking done? If you really just talk and don't use them to make peep shows to each other." Suggested Tracey with a wicked smile.

"We're not at this point yet." Said Daphne, her cheeks burning at the thought. Still, it wasn't the best thing to say.

"Yet?" Asked the perverted girl. "So you DO plan on that someday? Aha! God I'm proud of you! First you have him grab your boob in the train now that?"

"You know I had a specific reason for doing that in the train. As for the peep shows... I'm not comfortable with that at all for now, maybe never, but hearing you talk dirty all the time and quote me the more graphic passages of your books, its hard not to develop some..." Started Daphne, not sure which word to use.

"Some... Needs? Dreams? Urges? Phantasms?" Answered Tracey, still smiling.

"The latter I'd guess..." Conceded Daphne.

"Did I hear right?" Said a voice from the door. "My sister is developing phantasm?"

"Tori!" Said Daphne, jumping from her bed and hugging her sister. "I'm so glad you're ok..."

"Well yeah, I stayed here so... Don't change the subject!" Accused the brown haired girl. "What's your phantasm?"

"Why is the subject always revolving around sex when I'm with you two together?" Asked Daphne, still trying to avoid answering.

"Having a peep show with her boyfriend through two way mirrors." Said Tracey, getting an angry glare from her friend.

"I said I could develop some sort of phantasm, not that this was one, you're the one that suggested it." Said Daphne.

Both girls laughed at the tallest of them. They found it so fun to tease her they just couldn't stop.

"Oh come on Sis... Its normal. Me its to have mad sex in a lake, using the bubble head charm on only one of us so we have to keep kissing to be able to breath." Explained Astoria, enjoying the effect it had on her sister.

"Oh I like that!" Said Tracey. "Mine is to have a threesome with twins... Think the Weasleys would accept?"

"Ok I understand its normal! Can we now talk about something else?" Shouted Daphne, her face beat red. She felt awfully embarrassed right now, she'd never confess it to any of them but she also liked Astoria's idea.

"Sorry Daph but... We still need to talk about it." Said Tracey. Daphne was about to complain but she saw how much her friend looked serious right now.

"Wow Trace... I don't remember seeing you so serious." Said Astoria, taken aback a bit.

"Yeah..." Said the blonde. She waited for the two to be comfortably seated. "I need to make sure you're not pushing things a bit with him."

"What?" Asked Daphne, clearly shocked.

"Yeah, I know I always tease you and all, but you saw me when I though Harry was in the room, I'm really just teasing you and reading smut, I'm all talk, no action and its good." Started Tracey. Daphne and Astoria stayed silent, letting her make her point. "What happened in the train, I'm not judging you, but you've been together for a little more than a month and you already feel comfortable about him groping you."

"He what?" Asked an angry looking Astoria.

"Hold on Astoria. I'll explain..." Said Daphne.

The next few minutes, the Ice Queen explained to her sister everything that happened with Malfoy and how she put Harry's hand on her breast to make the ponce jealous. She did put a lot more details in the story of new year events than what she told to anybody, even Harry, so Tracey and Astoria's anger flared and they had to contain themselves from getting up and going straight to the boy's dorm to hex Draco's bits of and hang them on top of the astronomy tower.

"I just wanted to make him angry... I was angry, and that was the first thing that I though about." Said Daphne.

"It was brilliant, I have to approve." Said Astoria.

"Yeah, it was indeed priceless." Said Tracey. "I'm not judging you or anything Daph, I just want to make sure... you know... that you don't get to the next step too fast."

"God no!" Exclaimed the concerned. "I'm not ready for that at all. He knows it, we did touch a bit the subject in the kitchens and he says he's not ready either."

"Do you plan on letting him grope you again?" Asked Tracey.

"I don't know..." Sighed the raven haired Slytherin. "I can't say I disliked it even though I wasn't in the mood to enjoy it or think much about it. But I know our relationship is till young and that we shouldn't rush... Still, I feel very comfortable with him, enough that I doubt I'd say no if he asked, which I'm certain he'll never do... I am really confused right now..."

"I see..." Said Tracey. "Well, I'll support you whatever you do. Harry is a good guy, I know that. Noble and all, I'm sure he won't do anything you're not ready for, so there is no reason for you to rush into more advanced stuff. My suggestion is to wait before letting him touch you again, wait until you're less confused. It might only take tonight to gather your thought, or it can take months, but wait until you're sure or you might regret it."

"Yeah... I'll do that..." Said Daphne while nodding a bit. She looked up at her friend and sister, looking all serious and relieved. It made her smile. "Still... Its strange to hear that coming from you."

"Eh! What do you know? Maybe you're rubbing off on me more that I do on you." Said Tracey with a smirk.

"Oh don't talk about rubbing, I'll have strange dreams again tonight." Said Daphne, letting herself fall backward on her bed.

That statement had Astoria laughing while Tracey gasped from shock.

"I take it back... I may have influenced you more that I thought."

* * *

><p><p>

Next morning, Jeff was still hearing about the same things over and over again. "Harry potter with the Ice Queen!", "A Gryffindor with a Slythetin!", "I really love peanut butter-jelly sandwiches!"

Ignoring the last one, he found out rapidly that the rumors about Harry and Daphne had kinda evolved over the night. When the day before, people would say one or the other had cursed the other into falling in love, today was a bit more extravagant and exagerated.

"Debby Jones told me what happened!" Said a third year Hufflepuf to his as cute as he was short red head girl next to him. "She heard from Noah, who heard from Marry, that overheard Nearly Headless Nick tell the Bloody Baron the story."

"That promise to be hilarious." Thought the American.

"You know how Harry have a twin right?" Started the Hufflepuf, getting a frown from the girl which he took for a confirmation and had Jeff choke on his pumpkin juice. "Well, that twin, which is a Squib by the way, he is pure evil, You-Know-Who is like a cute puppy next to him. I heard he owns a tank that he was able to buy enchantments for to have it flying and be invisible. Well it turns out he rampaged through the muggle village near Daphne's home and Harry took her with him to protect her from his twin. That's where she disappeared this holiday. The Ministry covered it up because they don't want people to freak out as Harry's twin is already headed to India."

The reaction was a bit delayed, taking the time to get the information in. The Hufflepuf girl just burst out laughing. Jeff on his side had stopped drinking to avoid choking on his juice again. Didn't stop him to be almost breathless from silent laughter. Those listening were more than a little dubious, but the third year continued to claim it was true. Conveniently, Debby Jones was on the complete other side of the table as were the other involved in the chain.

Suddenly, the voices seemed to lower a bit, changing to murmurs. Jeff looked up and saw Harry enter with his hand linked to Daphne's. They were followed by all of Gryffindor's Quidditch team plus Tracey, Ginny, Hermione and some other. Though he had to say, nobody in the Great Hall seemed to notice the strangely big crowd behind the couple, not even how much that crowd seemed happy.

"So it was true..." Said a seventh year Ravenclaw.

"What, you didn't notice them together yesterday already?" Said a fourth year.

"Not Harry and Daphne." Snapped the cold guy. "The Gryffindor's team. While getting to the tower, McGonagall's was saying to Flitwick that Gryffindor's team was reinstated. Seems like the ministry had lot of pressure from a bunch of headhunters. Umbridge had to oblige it seems."

"Hey that's good news!" Said Jeff, happy for his friends. Seeing the grim look he got from the others, he got back to his saucers. Of course it wasn't. It meant Ravenclaw's team had an other competitor. More importantly, from how much the Gryffindor's team won against Slytherin, it placed them well in first place for the cup. Not that Jeff really minded, he wasn't that much into Quidditch. Still, he could hear from here the joyful reaction of the Gryffindor's table.

oOo

"_...We are happy to inform you that Gryffindor's Quidditch Team is back in place. We can't wait to see all of you flying again._

_With my best regards,_

_Hervey Stenson_

_Chudley Cannons Recruiter."_

Angelina was just finishing reading the letter they had received yesterday during dinner. She had waited to be in the Gryffindor's common room with the rest of the team before opening it. They were now reading it aloud for probably the sixth time, not even really needing the letter itself as they now knew it by heart, but they were so happy that any excuse to read it again was taken. The fact Daphne didn't knew yet was all they needed to go at it again. Harry was also really happy even if he still couldn't play, it gave him more time with Daphne and to prepare the DA classes.

"That was the good news you wanted to tell me?" Asked Daphne who heard the content of the letter for the first time.

"Yeah, its still a good news. I still can't play but.. meh, doesn't matter right now." Said Harry, squeezing her hand a little bit.

"I'm glad... Not that you can't play, that still suck." Harry raised an eyebrow at the word she used smirking, but didn't say anything. "I meant I'm glad the team is back. It was so unfair."

"That's life..." Said Harry, sighing. "No, in fact, that's just Umbridge."

"Talking about her. Do you think she'll give us trouble?" Asked Daphne. "I mean, about us?"

"Probably not as much as Malfoy and his new position. I wonder why she didn't make a decree yet." Harry said, looking at the ponce who seemed to currently be recruiting.

"Probably waiting to have the twenty students she wanted." Proposed the raven haired girl. "I'm guessing it'll be all Slytherins except for one of each other house. I wonder who they'll take in the other houses. I can only hope he'll not just pick people in his friend circle..."

"Yeah, but I won't bet on that." Said Harry.

"Class will start soon. We should go." Said Hermione who was in front of them.

Getting a nod from the couple, the all rose up and after tearing Ron away from his beloved letter, they made their way to their first class after the holidays. Harry had a feeling they might have started something they won't be able to control, but feeling her hand in his, he thought it was well worth it.


	13. Chapter 13

**Well, sorry for the long wait, I had trouble writing that one... I do know what will happen from now on since a while, but I had a lot of trouble writing anything that I liked, so here is a chapter I personnaly don't like. Its shorter and I don't like the way I wrote half of it, but I made you wait long enough and I won't be able to write anything if I don't force it a bit.**

**So there you are, tell me what you think of it!**

**Good reading :P**

* * *

><p>The Room of Requirement was almost full when Harry arrived with Daphne. It seemed the DA was eagerly waiting for the next meeting and didn't waste a single second. Normally, one or two person maximum were there early, not the full group.<p>

"Hey!" Shouted Susan when she saw him enter.

"Wow. You're all very early." Said Harry, a bit taken aback by the number of people waiting on him.

Susan shrugged. "Well, you did tell us we would be starting patronuses when we got back. I just can't wait to see what it'll be for me. I already started on them in fact, my aunt accepted to give me a few pointers during the holidays."

"Oh, I see... Well before that, I have some news to tell you." Harry told them, Daphne staying by his side.

"Oh Harry!" Cut a Hufflepuf. "As if we didn't SAW you and Daphne already..."

"Yeah, but no, that's not what I was going to tell you." Said Harry, rolling his eyes.

The Hufflepuf got slapped behind the head by his girlfriend, accompanied with a playful "idiot" from her.

"Starting now, we will have new teachers." While most looked mildly interested, a few of the persons present seemed more doubtful.

"You think we can get teachers to train us?" Asked a Ravenclaw.

"No, not teachers from school." corrected Harry. "We got four person that we'll get in the castle to teach us."

"How about you teaching us?" Asked Colin Creevey.

"The point of this group wasn't for me to teach you, one of the reason was simply to have a teacher over Umbridge so we could learn what is needed to pass our OWLs. Its main reason, or at least the main reason I accepted to start that group, was for us to learn to defend ourselves. I thought you all I could, the patronuses would have been the last thing I could have taught you. Those four new teachers will be able to teach things I couldn't, because lets face it... I'm still just a fifth year student." explained Harry.

"A fifth year student that taught us seventh year better than any teacher we had in here. I can finally send more than just a passable stunner. Don't downplay your role in here Harry." Said Angelina Johnson.

"Thanks, Angelina, but I meant that you're at the point where I can't teach you anymore." Continued Harry. "These teachers will be able to take on where I left."

"We already had a head start with them though so we'll help you at first to get you up to our level fast." Added Hermione.

"But who are the teachers?" Asked Susan, getting a nod from a lot of people, some of them looking around as if they would see four old warlocks with nameplates.

"Let us present ourselves miss." Said a brown haired man who entered by a portrait on the wall at the same time.

At that point, Harry and those aware of the truth, face palmed. It was, obviously, Sirius, but he chose to disguise in probably the best looking man he could find. In fact, it might have been a great idea as the girls were so entranced by the handsome guy and the guys were all jealous of the attention he was getting from the girls, that they probably didn't think it could be a glamour charm or polyjuice. Still, Harry wondered where he found such a person. Daphne on her side, did blush a bit, getting a raised eyebrow from Harry.

"What?" Said Daphne with a embarrassed smile.. "I'm still a girl. Don't think I don't see you ogling Tracey's chest sometimes."

"W-what do you mean?" Asked Harry, now on the defensive.

"Don't worry, I'm not mad at you about it." Said Daphne, playfully nudging him with her shoulder. "She does have a pair that catch the eye."

"Ehm... y-yeah, I guess." Said Harry, now horribly embarrassed.

Sirius, on his part, started to present himself ("My name is Ludovic White.") while the three others teachers entered through the portrait. Upon seeing two of them, the reaction from the students switched to joy at seeing Remus and to fear at seeing Moody. Tonks, not wanting to be outdone by Sirius had "improved" her figure quite a bit, chose a bright scarlet colour for her hairs and deep reddish-brown eyes that looked natural while still being mesmerizing. So while the girls were watching Sirius, Tonks got the attention of every boys in the room.

Harry made his way to Sirius while Tonks was presenting herself. Moony and Moody were already known as every one present had them as teacher, though Mad Eye never actually taught any of them, so they didn't bother.

"So... Where did you find that... ehm... disguise?" Asked Harry, Daphne still holding his hand.

"Ah! Well, I went to a modelling agency and met a very nice guy, some muggle underwear model, getting a haircut... from me. Got enough of hairs for a lifetime. I'm a bit disappointed, none of the models present looked as good as the original me..." Whispered Harry's godfather in both their ears, making them facepalm once more.

It took a bit of time to have people leave the four newcomers alone, especially getting three Hufflepufs from sixth and seventh year off Tonks who's eyes had a maniac sort of gleam while watching the guys. They seemed almost in love with her right now, but they would probably hate her after five minutes under her velvet covered iron fist.

"So! Those four are our new teachers. I'll let them explain what their speciality is." Almost shouted Harry to get the attention of everyone who were chattering one to the other.

Sirius was of course the one to start. "On my part, we'll leave the magical defence and get more physical. Hand to hand combat, fencing, martial arts and general unarmed self defence for when your wand is unavailable. I'll welcome of course anyone to follow my classes."

Most of the students seemed interested. Harry could see Jeff having a wicked smile, while a few girls he never though would have an interest in using their fist in a fight looked very excited. Lupin was the next and made it a bit more simple.

"I'll teach you more advance defence and offensive spells, everybody welcome." The werewolf said.

"As for me!" Told Tonks. "I'm gonna put those things of yours you call muscles into something you can finally talk about without shame. Everyone can follow my classes, but beware, I'm not gonna go easy on you and no, I don't care about blood status so I hope you don't plan to use that as leverage on me."

Some guys puffed their chest, seemingly thinking they could impress her, but most people actually gulped. Moody didn't help the matter.

"Now, most people THINK they know me, but remember it was an imposter last year, and he was like a kitty-cat compared to me. I will teach you how to fight with magic, and I mean really fight. I'll only take serious people though, you're more inclined to hurt yourself and others if you're not."

That had the effect of a cold shower on everyone present and Harry already knew that very few of them would consider taking Alastor's classes. Letting everyone make their mind a bit, Harry went to a blackboard that appeared from thin air.

"With as much people as we have, we won't be able to have a really fix time line for everyone." Harry said as he started to use his wand to write the names of the teachers on the board, including himself as he promised to teach the patronus spell. "So first, we need to know who wants to get in which class and we'll see what we can do but the teachers will certainly rotate over the week. Example, Tonks teaching Monday afternoon on week, White the next, Moody after then Lupin, then me. The week after that the order will rotate. Which mean if you have a lot of free time, you can go to more than one class every week. Also, our teachers do have other things to do so they might sometimes not be able to come every scheduled times. So I want you to come and write you name under the classes you want to take. You can drop them or pick them later, but if you take them later you will have a lot to catch up."

For the next ten minutes, people wrote their names under the classes they wanted to take. Some took more time to think but every single person took Harry's and Lupin's classes. Sirius had most student too while Tonks had almost all the boys but only a few girls. Moody had only a little more than twenty students which included every ones of Harry's friends and Gryffindor's Quidditch team plus a few more.

They had time to start a bit on the patronuses, teaching the basic with Lupin's help mostly. Nobody was able to do much in the end other than Daphne and Hermione. Susan was more advanced too as she had a head start with her aunt, so she helped Harry instead.

They left later than usual, as everyone seemed so motivated that they didn't want to stop. Still, they were just in time before the curfew. On the way Harry saw the twins try to convince Hermione of something.

"Please! Can you teach us the Fidelius charm? We learned all the theory from the book in the Room of Requirement, we know the wand movements by heart, the conditions also, everything! But we still can't do it! Please teach us what we do wrong!" Begged Fred... or George.

"Oh and why would you need to know that charm?" Asked Hermione with evident scepticism.

"The good we can make with it would be... immense!" Said one of the twin... lets say its Fred.

"Yes! We need it for the well being of Hogwarts..." Continued George.

"...of the country!..." Added Fred.

"...of the world!..." Escalated George.

"You're not convincing me with that..." Said Hermione with a raised eyebrow before going in the girls dormitory, effectively ending the argument.

The twins suddenly turned toward Harry. "Please! Convince Daphne to teach us! We'll do anything!"

Harry laughed at the Weasley's antics, guessing Daphne already refused to teach them. "You can convince her yourself, I doubt she would change her mind just because I ask her."

The twins abandoned at that, their shoulder dropping while they turned and went to their dormitories. ("You think she'll accept if...") Harry just chuckled on his way, trying himself to think what they would probably do with it.

* * *

><p>The rest of the month passed quite fast. Between classes and the new DA regimen, time seemed to vanish as if they were using a time turner in reverse regularly. At least, they didn't have much trouble with organizing the DA meetings. The other members quickly learned how it worked and were doing their best to be there on every one of their classes, though some, mainly the Quidditch players, missed a few. Hufflepuf had soon a match against Ravenclaw and both houses were taunting the other a lot recently, while the players were much more often absent from the meetings. As the meetings were organized every week for the next one, they could take in account everyone's schedules... Well Hermione and Daphne took care of that, Harry had a headache every time he tried.<p>

On his part, Harry had never missed a single class yet, neither had Daphne, Tracey, Hermione, Jeff and the twins. It helped that they didn't have any clubs or that Harry wasn't in the Quidditch team anymore. The couple still found time to be together and to make their homework. They were most of the time in the Room of Requirement for their homework, easier to get any books when you just had to wish it. This particularity of the room also made it so that it was almost never empty. Sometime they would go to it and it would be already in use and sealed. They tried no to think too much about what the people inside were actually doing.

They would sometime see house-elves coming in, wish a certain object, then leave as if there was nobody around them at the time, except Dobby who couldn't stop himself from greeting everyone and asking if there was anything he could do for them, but people generally had all they wanted when they were in the Room of Requirement, as its name implied, so they always refused.

Still, there was some sort of unspoken agreement that Harry had a sort of priority on it as he was the secret keeper. He was also the one that experimented the most with it and knew perfectly well its limits, even more than Hermione and Jeff who where the experts at first. He had to be very careful when using the room to move around the castle, because if he just appeared from a portrait, people wouldn't be stopped by the fidelius charm to learn about the room, Harry being the secret keeper.

"Coast is clear Harry, you can come out." Said Ron who was checking the portrait just out of transfiguration corridor. "The only person in sight is Susan and Hannah."

Getting out, they quickly closed the portrait of a horse eating some grass, looking at them with the least of interest. They entered the classroom well in advance to find Jeff also in advance. Taking their seats, they talked a bit about the DA meetings since the new teachers.

"...I so love Moody's training! I've always been an action type guy so yeah, so I don't care being beaten up to learn and god I learn fun things!" Said Jeff.

"I thought your favourite class would have been the martial art one with Ludovic." Asked Hermione with a wide smile.

She was soon joined by the other in smiling widely, remembering the first martial art class where Sirius's ego was highly deflated.

* * *

><p>"<em>Sooooo!" Shouted Sirius in a muggle traditional Karate suit. "Today, we will start by me showing you a bit of what you will learn. I need a volunteer."<em>

_All the class seemed to suddenly take a giant step back... or Jeff actually took a very giant step forward. Harry remembered him being highly interested in martial art class so he wasn't surprised to see him so eager to start._

"_Good good... So don't worry, I won't hurt you much. I want you to take these pads and I will strike them to show a few moves." Said Sirius with a very toothy smile. Harry had suddenly a horrible sens of déjà-vu, as did every one that didn't have Lockheart in their heart in second year._

_For a few minutes, they looked at Sirius hitting the pads, explaining the mechanics in the movements and how it was important to learn to do them seamlessly so that even with a reflex they would be using the good technique, which meant repeat, repeat, repeat until you can't anymore, then repeat again._

"_He's much more... theatrical than this winter." Said Daphne with a light chuckle._

"_Yeah, very much." Approved Harry._

"_Now... Jeff was it?" Sirius said, taking a step back. When Jeff nodded, he continued. "I'll have you attack me, and I will defend. Start with just a straight punch."_

_Jeff threw a punch at Sirius who blocked it without too much trouble and showed some ways to block incoming attacks, having Jeff try different sorts until..._

"_Now, lets see what you got. Give me all you have and I will apply those techniques to block you." Said the teacher._

_At that moment, Harry had a weird feeling while Jeff started to grow a smile so wicked that probably got Fred and George jealous. He frowned while he suddenly remembered him telling Harry, on the first morning, that he had to keep himself in shape as he stopped doing martial arts since he left America. That explained why he was so enthusiastic about that class. That meant he had some experience in hand to hand combat..._

_Thirty seconds later, Harry reconsidered... He had a LOT of experience in martial art. As it turned out, Jeff had been doing various type of martial arts since he was four, having a black belt in more than one of those. Sirius, who was pretty muscular in that form, was panting on the floor, bruised everywhere, while Jeff stood over him, perfectly unharmed and not having dropped a single sweat. His smile hadn't faltered during the whole fight and while everyone stood flabbergasted – except Luna – Harry got the most uncontrollable fit of laughter, soon followed by Ron, the twins, then the rest of those who knew who Ludovic Whithe really was._

* * *

><p>"Yeah..." Said Ron with a smile. "That was priceless. I like Si... I meant Ludovic, he's fun and don't mind making a fool of himself, but damn that expression on his face was epic."<p>

"I couldn't help myself... I had decided at first I would lay low a bit in that class, just enjoy doing martial art again but... Sorry, I've always been a bit show off... Ok a lot." Conceded the American. "Also, he underestimated me at that time that's why it was so easy, I had him on the ground before he could get back from the shock, the other sparring matches we much more close."

"You still won every one of those..." Said Hermione.

Jeff just shrugged at that. "If you think I'm good, never, ever, fight my sister..."

Ron's mouth hanged open for a few seconds before commenting. "You mean that blond hot chick my brothers keep daydreaming about since they saw her on the train station?"

"Yeah, that one. When she's serious, the fight is always over in around fifteen seconds with me in the same way Ludovic was after our first fight... minus the stunned expression, switch that to a painful one." Explained Jeff with a grimmace.

"Duly noted." Said the trio at the same time.

"Think she could come and teach us?" Asked Harry. "I'm sure they could get her here for it. You and Ludovic are good teacher but she seem on an other level."

Jeff eyes almost popped out of his sockets. "No! Nononoo... nononononononono... no... never..." Seeing the others puzzled expression, he elaborated. "She's a very bad teacher. She's the kind that thinks experience is all is needed. So she beat you up until you learn. I just can't imagine the horror of her meeting Tonks in a training environment."

The trio slowly nodded with a look that told Jeff they were experimenting very painful mental images right now.

The rest of the class went smoothly and they took their way to the Great Hall to have lunch. As they entered, Harry saw Daphne with Tracey and Astoria at the Gryffindor table, her face in her hands while the other two Slytherins were shooting angry glance at their house table. It wasn't new and Harry was always on the verge of fuming every time he witnessed her that way.

"What did they do this time?" Asked Harry while sitting beside his girlfriend. He knew she was strong and all, because she managed to never cry, but he knew that it still affected her.

"Malfoy got Pansy and Millicent to go through her things... again... Daphne came up to find her things everywhere, torn up and all, even her bed sheets this time. Its the third time this week only." Explained Tracey. "She's wearing my stuff again while we try and repair everything but even the reparo spell don't do much if we don't have all the pieces.

As Tracey said, that wasn't the first time. She received a few minor hexes, some a bit more dangerous and one even sent a spell that might have wounded her permanently if she didn't have all those reflexes from Moody's and Tonk's classes, yet Nott was still here Snape even gave him twenty points for his well made curse. They would have though that as she was one the best student in Slytherin in potions that the overgrown bat would have been more keen to help her, but no, he had the same reaction as the rest of the house about being in couple with Harry. Her wardrobe also kept being torn so that she always had to wear Tracey stuff. She always kept the mirror and her valuable objects with her, she even gave some to Harry so he could hide them in the Gryffindor's room.

Harry's fist shook on the table before getting up. "That's enough."

"No Harry! You will just get yourself in trouble!" Said Daphne, looking up from her hands with slightly red eyes.

"I don't care!" Shouted the Boy-Who-Lived. "You know I don't care!" He looked at the Slytherin table and saw Malfoy with an evil smile looking at him.

"He's provoking you and you're reacting! That is what he want!" Said Hermione, putting a hand on his shoulder which he roughly put away.

"I-Don't-Fucking-Care!" Screamed Harry once more, not seeing that the hall had became after his first outburst. "They keep attacking her and even when they are caught, they get nothing in retaliation because they're all in the fucking inquisitorial squad so only Umbitch got the power to do anything!"

A good thing that she wasn't there to hear him, because that would have been bad for him. Still, even in that situation, he was certain to get the attention of McGonagall as she entered the Great Hall.

"Potter! Come with me!" Said McGonagall.

The Slytherins sniggered while he was almost dragged by the strict teacher. Harry was too angry to even think about anything. The only thing he saw while leaving the Hall were Malfoy sending him a rude finger gesture while Daphne's face went back to her hands.

At that moment, Harry was also very angry toward himself for agreeing to seeing each others in public.

"In." Said McGonagall with her most angry voice, her lips completely white.

Harry entered the office and sat heavily on the chair in front of the desk. Where his Head of House sat herself, putting her face in her hands.

"I hate to do this... Harry." She said. The fact she used his first name took a bit of Harry's anger to turn it into surprise. "I perfectly understand you right now."

"No you don't." Said Harry in a hard tone, surprising McGonagall. His momentary surprise was gone as fast as it came when McGonagall claimed to understand him. "Daphne asked to stop hiding and I accepted. It was stupid of me when I knew that it would be hard for her, but I never expected it to be that much!"

"You knew there would be talking behind your back..." Started McGonagall.

"Yes I knew!" Yelled Harry. "But that's not what is happening right now. She have to keep wearing Tracey's clothes because her's are always torn every time she get back to her dormitory! She got hexes thrown at her so often she more paranoiac that Mad-Eye and she would be leaving the school in a corpse bag if she wasn't as good as she is for duelling when Nott actually sent a severing charm powerful enough to decapitate her that she managed to avoid. Snape didn't help, he gave Nott twenty points for a wonderful spell while he told Daphne to wipe the blood on the floor that kept dropping from her fresh wound at her shoulder!"

McGonagall was too stunned by Harry's outburst to say anything. She would have normally stopped him long before if she wasn't learning things that made her tremble with anger herself.

"No you don't understand where I am at right now. So I'll tell you, I don't care a bit about being expelled right now if it allow me to put Malfoy and his little gang in the hospital wing. So you better have a god damn good solution to all of this before I start to reply in force." Finished Harry.

"Sit down... Harry." Said McGonagall in a smooth voice that took Harry off balance. He didn't even know he had stood up and was pacing in the office. "You know like me, that I have no more power than you over these actions. But yes, I understand you right now. I didn't know about half of what you just told me and I currently think just like you. I wouldn't care if I was sacked right now just to put that Umbridge woman to her place and to teach Snape a lesson or two."

Harry's eye bulged at that statement. He had never heard McGonagall talk that way, but she wasn't finished.

"I would, if I was sure it would actually help. But I won't because it would maybe make me feel better for a small amount of time, but I wouldn't be there to help the students anymore. Do you think Daphne would be in a better position if you weren't there anymore to keep an eye on her?" Asked the Scottish woman.

"No..." Said Harry, calming a good amount. He had protected Daphne from a few spells already. People didn't attack him because they knew that to hurt him the most, it was best to hurt what he cared about the most.

"Good. Now Potter, as for a solution, I will speak to Dumbledor about all this and I'm sure he will do something about it when he learn its much worse than we thought. For her things, I would suggest that you speak to Flitwick about warding. Daphne is studying Ancient runes and Arythmancy, so she have the basic to learn how to do some powerful warding, and there is no rules against warding as long as it doesn't do lasting damages."

Harry smiled at the idea. They hadn't thought about warding but now that he thought about it, its was so obvious. "Thanks about that, we will look into it."

Harry got up, preparing himself to leave but he was stopped by McGonagall. "One moment. Even if I do understand your outburst, I still need to punish you. Now I would take off points but... how much do we have right now?"

"-278, professor. Hufflepuf got -46, Rabenclaw 2 and Slytherin's hourglass has been overflowing since they reached 1300 a week ago." Said Harry with a bit of desperation in his voice.

"Yes... well, taking off point won't do much, so you will be serving detentions with me for a week." told McGonagall.

Harry nodded in a resigned way before making it to the door with McGonagall just behind him. Once outside, they were met with the two least wanted persons currently.

"Now, I heard you used a very foul name for me?" Said Umbridge, her face the same pick as her cardigan, Malfoy a few feet behind, smirking. "I think you deserve a detention with me."

"I already gave Harry a week detention with me, Dolores. You don't need to give him any." Said McGonagall.

"Not anymore. He will spend them with me. For three weeks. Starting tonight. Have a nice day." Umbridge said before turning and walking away. She didn't even told him an hour, but he knew she would be telling him he was late even if he ran from his class to her office. Malfoy followed her away while McGonagall looked at him with her sorry eyes. Harry almost didn't care. McGonagall or Umbridge, in the end he was just angry that he would miss a lot of DA classes.


End file.
